AICA closes a Seed investment round – Bringing real-time intelligence to industrial control

AICA, a Swiss innovator transforming industrial automation with Al-powered force adaptation technology, has secured a strategic investment led by Momenta, the leading venture capital firm specializing in Industrial Impact®. This investment, made through Momenta’s Industry 5.0 Fund, will propel AICA’s global expansion and enhance its Al-driven automation capabilities. Existing investors Spicehaus, HTGF, and Schaeffler have reaffirmed their confidence in AICA by participating in this round. 

Solving a Major Bottleneck in Industrial Automation 

Robotics programming is complex & costly, often doubling hardware costs. AICA System integrates Al with real-time, sensor-driven control to simplify deployment and reduce development costs. Used by industry leaders like Schaeffler, it enables tasks like assembly, polishing, and battery disassembly. 

What sets AICA apart? 

• Real-time sensor driven control to bring more flexibility in the way robots are programmed and in how they perceive & interact with the production environment
• Connection of diverse hardware, sensors, and Al software to bring innovation faster into production. 
• Faster deployment from prototyping to production through AICA Studio, AICA’s modular GUI. 

Bringing Al-Driven Intelligence to Robotics 

Industrial robotics has long been limited by poor communication interfaces and the lack of standardized programming. As a result, most applications remain restricted to simple pick-and-place tasks. AICA revolutionizes this space with a real-time control framework that seamlessly integrates impedance control, motion generation, and force compliance, making advanced robotics more accessible. 

Al is the future of industrial automation, enabling robots to learn tasks instead of being manually programmed. While simulation platforms like Nvidia Omniverse train thousands of agents, deploying these learned models onto real hardware remains a challenge due to the absence of control standards. AICA bridges this gap by providing a universal control framework that ensures safe, real-time adaptation of Al-trained robotic systems, bringing Al-driven intelligence to industrial robotics. 

“Robotics has been stuck in outdated programming methods for too long. At AICA, we’re making automation more flexible and intelligent-helping robots adapt in real-time and work the way industries actually need them to,” said Baptiste Busch, Co-founder and CEO of AICA. 

Advancing Automation Across Industries and Applications 

Automation is transforming every industry, and AICA is at the forefront of this shift. While the company has gained strong traction in the automotive industry, the AICA System is simultaneously hardware, industry, and application agnostic, enabling flexible automation across diverse use cases. For example, in the LAMBDA Project, a Eurostars-backed initiative, AICA applies its expertise to the automated disassembly of electric vehicle (EV) batteries, driving smarter resource recovery and strengthening circular economy efforts in the EV supply chain. Furthermore, in the life sciences and chemical industries, AICA is also seeing a strong appetite for more flexible and autonomous laboratory  automation. 

“The confidence of investors and clients in AICA’s technology validates and emboldens our ambitious long-term vision,” said Enrico Eberhard, Co-founder and CTO of AICA. “I am equally confident in our uniquely talented team and world-class partners to continue bridging the gaps between research and industry, between software and hardware, and ultimately between robots and the people they empower.” 

Visionary Leadership Driving Innovation 

AICA’s rapid growth is led by Baptiste Busch, Co-founder and CEO, a PhD in Robotics and Machine Learning, and Enrico Eberhard, Co-founder and CTO, a PhD in Control with previous experience in software development for robotics. Both are recognized leaders in Al-driven automation. Their combined expertise in advanced control systems and machine learning has successfully translated cutting-edge research into scalable industrial solutions, attracting major industry players to AICA’s mission. 

Fueling the next phase of growth 

This investment marks a significant milestone for AICA, expanding into new markets, forging partnerships with industrial leaders, and advancing Al-powered robotic control. 

“Momenta invests in disruptive technologies that deliver tangible industrial benefits,” started Miroslav Kriz, Principal Partner at Momenta. “AICA’s advanced software for autonomous adaptation and force control simplifies what has long been one of the most challenging aspects of robotic automation. We’re proud to support AICA as they help manufacturers build more capable and flexible systems across diverse hardware platforms.” 

Gregor Haidl, Principal at HTGF adds: “We firmly believe in AICA’s potential, as the company addresses a critical challenge in industrial robotics—one that is essential for enabling more complex and AI-driven applications. We are pleased with the successful completion of this financing round and look forward to collaborating closely with the AICA team, Momenta, and the existing investors to shape the future of robotics.”

About AICA 
AICA is a robotics software company that spun out of the EPFL LASA lab, focused on revolutionizing industrial automation. By bridging Al software and real-time sensor control with industrial hardware, AICA simplifies the deployment and programming of robotic systems. AICA’s goal is to make automation more accessible and intelligent, enabling complex automation and driving productivity across industries. (www.aica.tech) 

AICA is excited to announce its participation in the NVIDIA GTC Al Conference in San Jose this March 2025. Building on strong, strategic partnerships with industry leaders, AICA will showcase its solutions across two booths at the event. AICA will demonstrate a dual-arm screwing application with one partner, and, in collaboration with another partner, highlight AICA’s simultaneous orchestration of foundation pose, learning from demonstration, and obstacle avoidance technologies. This participation marks a significant milestone for AICA, further solidifying the growing demand for its solutions in the market. As new partnerships continue to unfold, AICA’s presence at NVIDIA GTC highlights the company’s role at the forefront of Al-driven automation, bringing real-time intelligence to industrial control.

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing start-ups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports start-ups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds. Across its funds, HTGF has over 2 billion euros under management. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed more than 770 start-ups and achieved almost 200 successful exits.  
Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices.  
For more information, please visit HTGF.de or follow us on LinkedIn.  

Media contact
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 121
t.jacob@htgf.de