Who Péter Fankhauser is
Fankhauser co-founded ANYbotics in 2016 and is now its chief executive. The company has moved from a university lab to robots working in oil, gas, chemical, and power plants.1,2
Legged robots at ETH Zurich
During his doctorate at ETH Zurich, Fankhauser developed perception and motion planning algorithms that let legged robots move through difficult terrain.1
Anybotics addresses the challenge of performing routine inspections in complex and hazardous industrial environments.Péter Fankhauser, TechCrunch, December 12, 2024
Spinning out ANYbotics in 2016
ANYbotics came out of ETH Zurich's Robotic Systems Lab in 2016. Its founding team was Samuel Bachmann, Remo Diethelm, Péter Fankhauser, Hanspeter Fässler, Christian Gehring, Marco Hutter, Andreas Lauber, and Roland Siegwart, and it began as a Wyss Zurich project before recording its first sales in 2017.4
In the early years Fankhauser led business development and marketing.1
Scaling industrial inspection
In December 2024 ANYbotics raised $60 million, bringing its total to $130 million, with close to 200 robots deployed and a newly opened San Francisco office. Fankhauser told TechCrunch the robots take routine inspections out of hazardous areas.2 By September 2025 Climate Investment put the company's total funding at over $150 million.5
When the explosion-proof ANYmal X launched, Fankhauser said four years of engineering and more than ten patents had gone into it.3
Links
Sources
- ANYbotics, Company, accessed October 31, 2026
- TechCrunch, Anybotics raises $60M to bring more autonomous industrial robots to the US, December 12, 2024, accessed October 31, 2026
- ANYbotics, ANYmal X launch, accessed October 31, 2026
- Verve Ventures, Interview with Péter Fankhauser of ANYbotics, accessed October 31, 2026
- Climate Investment, CI joins investment in ANYbotics, September 19, 2025, accessed October 31, 2026
Photo: ANYbotics, Company.
