Ascento
About
About Ascento
Ascento builds and operates all-terrain wheel-legged robots for outdoor security and industrial inspection. Its Guard service combines thermal and RGB cameras, autonomous charging, encrypted communications, remote control and scheduled patrols for people detection, perimeter checks, lighting, doors and thermal anomalies.
The robot is delivered as a robotics-as-a-service package with site configuration, monitoring and technical support. It works in rain, snow and uneven outdoor areas, and can run for more than eight hours between charges, giving industrial facilities a persistent mobile layer for patrol and asset observation.
Products
Funding
- 2023-09-12 - Pre-seed - $4.3M - Ascento raises $4.3M pre-seed round
Ascento raised $4.3 million in pre-seed financing led by Wingman Ventures and Playfair Capital to launch Ascento Guard and expand its fleet. - source: techcrunch.com
Investors
- Daniel Kottlarz - Participant - Angel / Individual - 1 funding event - first seen 2023-09-12
- ESA BIC Switzerland - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2023-09-12
- Innosuisse - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2023-09-12
- Playfair Capital - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2023-09-12
- Ryan Gariepy - Participant - Angel / Individual - 1 funding event - first seen 2023-09-12
- Tim Kentley-Klay - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2023-09-12
- Tobias Redlin - Participant - Angel / Individual - 1 funding event - first seen 2023-09-12
- Wingman Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2023-09-12
Team
- Alessandro Morra - Co-Founder & CEO - Leads Ascento’s commercialization of autonomous outdoor security robots.
- Ciro Salzmann - Co-Founder, Electronics & Software - Develops the electronics and software behind Ascento’s autonomous security robots.
- Dominik Mannhart - Co-Founder, Hardware & Design - Leads hardware and product design for Ascento’s wheel-legged security robots.
- Miguel de la Iglesia Valls - Co-Founder & CTO - Leads Ascento’s technical development and deployment architecture.
Research
- Ascento team publishes two-wheeled jumping-robot research
2020-05-23 - Research Publication - The prototype combined fast wheeled travel with obstacle-clearing jumps in mixed indoor environments. The paper documented the mechanical architecture and controllers that preceded Ascento’s commercial security-robot work.
Source
Timeline
Events
- 2024-11-12 - Product Launch - Ascento introduces Guard 2.0 for critical-infrastructure patrol
Guard 2.0 provides eight hours of battery life and improved front, side and rear vision for large-perimeter monitoring. Customer deployments span data centres, pharmaceutical campuses, manufacturing sites and logistics facilities. Ascento introduced Guard 2.0 with longer battery life, expanded camera coverage and upgraded lighting for outdoor security and inspection.
Source - 2023-09-12 - Funding - Ascento raises $4.3M pre-seed round
Wingman Ventures and Playfair Capital led the round, with participation from robotics founders and non-dilutive support from Innosuisse and ESA BIC. The financing supported fleet growth and expansion of the sales and operations team.
Source - 2023-09-12 - Product Launch - Ascento launches autonomous outdoor security robot Ascento Guard
The robot was designed for perimeter checks, parking control, thermal-anomaly detection and other repetitive patrol tasks at large outdoor sites. The Robotics-as-a-Service package combined the robot with an encrypted operator application and autonomous charging.
Source - 2023-04-11 - Deployment - Securitas trials Ascento security robots at an SBB site
The trial had run for several months and covered repeated outdoor patrols at the railway facility. Ascento clarified that Securitas was testing the system and that Swiss Federal Railways was the trial site rather than a direct customer.
Source - 2020-05-23 - Research Publication - Ascento team publishes two-wheeled jumping-robot research
The prototype combined fast wheeled travel with obstacle-clearing jumps in mixed indoor environments. The paper documented the mechanical architecture and controllers that preceded Ascento’s commercial security-robot work.
Source
Relations
Relationships
- Swiss Federal Railways
Trial Site - Securitas trialled Ascento security robots at a Swiss Federal Railways site in a feasibility study.
- Securitas AG
Security Service Deployment Partner - Securitas tested and subsequently deployed Ascento Guard robots for outdoor patrol and customer security operations.
Context
Comparable profiles
- Splan
comparable profile - Wheel Legged Security Robot Builder
Shared workflows
- Xiaoyuan Robot / 小远机器人
workflow adjacency - Facility Patrol
- Boston Dynamics
workflow adjacency - Facility Patrol
- Deep Robotics
workflow adjacency - Facility Patrol
- Ghost Robotics
workflow adjacency - Facility Patrol
Context tags
- Facility patrol - Workflow - Ascento’s product and deployment sources support this exact patrol context.
- Wheel-legged security robot builder - Peer Group - Ascento’s product and deployment sources support this exact patrol context.
- Perimeter Security - Customer Environment - Ascento’s product and deployment sources support this exact patrol context.