Gravis raises US$200m to scale autonomous machinery

Gravis Robotics has raised US$200 million in Series A funding from SoftBank to scale its autonomous heavy machinery technology. Image: Gravis Robotics

The company said the funding is the largest Series A in construction robotics history. Series A funding is a startup’s first major round of institutional venture capital financing.

Gravis, founded in 2022 and spun out of ETH Zurich, develops software for autonomous construction equipment. Its technology runs on the Gravis Rack, an autonomous control kit that can be retrofitted to machines from different manufacturers.

The company said the system has been installed on machines from brands including Caterpillar, Case, Develon, John Deere, JCB, Hitachi, Sumitomo, Yanmar and Volvo.

Gravis was recently selected to lead a US$8 million UK government-backed CAM Pathfinder project in partnership with Flannery Plant Hire. The project will retrofit excavator fleets with the Gravis Rack to give contractors access to autonomous machinery.

The company claims its technology can deliver up to a 30% boost in jobsite productivity compared with peak manual operation, while also improving worksite safety.

The funding will support a wider rollout of Gravis’ autonomous systems across heavy machinery fleets.

Dai Sakata, managing director of SoftBank Group, said Gravis was bringing AI-powered autonomy to construction and helping to build “smarter, more efficient infrastructure”.