Robotics startup Enact Intelligence nabs $30M funding round

Swiss robotics startup Enact Intelligence has secured $30 million in pre-seed funding, according to a wire report. The investment was led by a group including AI pioneer Yann LeCun, Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch, Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf, and various venture capital firms. Enact, or Eta Robotics AG, was founded earlier this year by CEO Manuel Yves Galliker, who previously worked at robotics firms Physical Intelligence Inc. and 1X Technologies AS.

The company's team comprises ex-employees from Google DeepMind, Amazon.com Inc., and other prominent industry figures. Enact is creating AI models designed to control a diverse array of robots, a departure from traditional methods where models were tailored to specific robot designs. This innovation allows Enact's algorithms to function across various robot types.

The startup is also developing customized robot components, particularly actuators, which serve as both mechanical muscles and sensors for robots. Enact's actuators generate mechanical force and can detect pressure, enabling robots to sense the weight of objects they interact with. The company has started hiring engineers and is utilizing field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to optimize its robot's performance and power efficiency.