Darmstadt’s Energy Robotics, an AI software platform for autonomous inspection with robots and drones, today announced the successful close of €11.5 million Series A funding to commercially deploy their software across energy, chemicals, industrial, and security sectors.
The Series A was co-led by Blue Bear Capital and Climate Investment (CI), with participation from Futury Capital, Hessen Capital, Kensho VC, and TADTech.
“This funding round will help us scale autonomy to serve the world’s most critical infrastructure, giving energy, chemicals, utilities, and security operators greater resilience, safety, and efficiency,” said Marc Dassler, CEO and Co-founder of Energy Robotics.
He added: “As a skilled workforce retires, critical infrastructure operators face a significant demographic shift. This is compounded by the fact that many of the world’s most vital energy and chemical assets are decades old, requiring more frequent and intricate monitoring, inspection, and maintenance. This combination of an aging workforce, a shrinking talent pool, and deteriorating infrastructure creates a perfect storm of operational risk.”
Energy Robotics’ Series A positions the company alongside a cohort of industrial automation firms securing fresh capital this year. Swiss robotics developer ANYbotics closed over €127 million to commercialise its four-legged inspection robots, while fellow Swiss startup Flybotix raised €8.5 million to expand drone inspections for confined spaces. Voliro added €19.8 million to deploy maintenance drones, and several German peers have also attracted funding – including Filics (€13.5 million), Unchained Robotics (€8.5 million), sensmore (€6.5 million), and Sereact (€25 million).
This series of investments reflects sustained confidence in Europe’s autonomous systems sector, spanning drones, legged robots, and software-driven orchestration platforms. With Energy Robotics operating from Germany, the company’s round adds to a growing cluster of national activity in industrial and AI-powered robotics, highlighting Europe’s strategic push to automate infrastructure inspection and maintenance.
“Our platform provides a timely and scalable solution, enabling customers to not only maintain but also improve operational efficiency and safety, while actively mitigating the challenges of this workforce transition,” added Dassler.
Founded in 2019, Energy Robotics provides AI software platform for autonomous industrial inspection. Its hardware-agnostic solution integrates with multiple robot platforms, generates Evergreen Digital Twins of critical infrastructure, and delivers actionable insights directly into customer workflows.
The company has reportedly completed over one million inspections across five continents, saving 32,000+ hours of hazardous human labor for customers across oil and gas, industrial, chemical, and utility sectors, including BASF, BP, Dow Chemical, E.ON, Merck, Repsol, and Shell.
According to Energy Robotics, existing infrastructure and industrial facilities are confronting two major challenges: a shrinking skilled workforce and increasingly complex, aging equipment that requires specialised maintenance. Energy Robotics aims to address this through its AI software platform for autonomous robots and drones that cuts operating costs by up to 40% while significantly enhancing worker safety.
Industries served by Energy Robotics have significant operational risks, including exposure to fires, explosions, toxic chemicals, leaks, physical dangers and cybersecurity breaches. Autonomous robots and drones powered by Energy Robotics’ platform perform essential daily and hourly tasks, including visual inspections, thermal scans, and leak detection, eliminating the need for humans to enter dangerous environments while keeping proprietary data secure.
“The industrial robotics market has reached an inflection point,” said Cindi Bough, Managing Director at Climate Investment. “Energy Robotics has built an AI software platform that orchestrates diverse fleets of robots and drones, integrates seamlessly with existing enterprise workflows, and delivers actionable data services at scale today. Also, Energy Robotics delivers climate impact by using autonomous robots to spot gas leaks early, so harmful emissions are fixed before they escape into the atmosphere. This is why we are excited to co-lead their Series A investment.“
Key features of the platform include:
- Hardware-Agnostic Operating System: Seamlessly integrates with 8 leading robots and drones and OEM hardware manufacturers (e.g., Boston Dynamics, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, DJI), giving customers the flexibility to build mixed fleets without vendor lock-in
- AI-Powered Analytics: An advanced AI analytics library interprets multimodal sensor data, from gauge readings to leak detection, continuously learning and improving with every mission
- LLM-Driven Mission Control: Integrated LLM system enables operators to simply prompt the platform to generate and execute inspection tasks across entire fleets of robots and drones
- Real-World Data vs. Synthetic Data: Fleet orchestration and autonomous operations are based on millions of data points gathered in complex, dynamic real-word facilities such as refineries and power plants
- Evergreen Digital Twin: Each inspection mission automatically updates a live, evolving digital replica of facilities, providing real-time visibility and predictive insights that feed directly into customer ERP, CMMS, and digital twin platforms
- Data Privacy & Cybersecurity: Energy Robotics strengthens cybersecurity and data sovereignty by providing a platform that keeps sensitive inspection data within customer-controlled IT systems, independent of vendor-specific software platforms
“The global energy transition relies on a more resilient, efficient, and secure infrastructure,” said Dr Carolin Funk, Partner, Blue Bear Capital. “Energy Robotics’ autonomous inspection platform, powered by AI, directly addresses this need. It provides a scalable solution that improves the safety and operational efficiency of key energy and industrial assets, while taking advantage of the global robotics expansion.“
EU-Startups previously featured Energy Robotics in a 2021 article detailing its €2 million Seed round.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/10/german-startup-energy-robotics-raises-e11-5-million-to-advance-autonomous-robot-and-drone-inspection-software/
