Gravis Robotics
About
About Gravis Robotics
Gravis Robotics develops a retrofit autonomy stack for excavators and other heavy construction machines. The system combines perception sensors, onboard compute, machine control and an operator interface so existing equipment can execute or supervise earthmoving jobs while retaining the underlying machine.
The system performs trenching, bulk excavation, grading and truck loading, with deployments across multiple countries. A programme with Flannery expands that work into a funded six-excavator, multi-machine validation trial focused on coordinating autonomous earthmoving equipment at jobsite scale.
Articles
Products
Deployments
- Operating use
2026-08-17 - Gravis reports its retrofit autonomy systems deployed across four continents, with work involving Holcim, Taylor Woodrow and HD Hyundai and autonomous excavation at Manchester Airport. - Gravis retrofit autonomy systems - Multiple construction, quarry and earthmoving sites
Source
Funding
- 2026-08-17 - Series A - $200M - Gravis Robotics raises $200M Series A from SoftBank
Gravis Robotics completed a new Series A financing from SoftBank for its construction-equipment autonomy business. - source: inc.com
- 2025-11-28 - $23M - Gravis Robotics raises $23M to scale autonomous earthmoving technology
source: tech.eu
Investors
- Armada Investment - Participant - Angel / Individual - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-11-28
- Holcim - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-11-28
- Imad - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-11-28
- Imad Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-11-28
- IQ Capital - Lead - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-11-28
- Pear VC - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-11-28
- SoftBank - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2026-08-17
- Sunna Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-11-28
- Zacua Ventures - Lead - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-11-28
Team
- Ryan Luke Johns - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer - Co-founded and leads Gravis Robotics and its earthmoving-autonomy platform.
- Dominic Jud - Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer - Co-founded Gravis and leads its autonomous-control technology.
- Marco Hutter - Co-founder and Board Member - Co-founded Gravis and provides research and board continuity from the ETH Zurich spinout.
Timeline
Events
- 2026-08-17 - Funding - Gravis Robotics raises $200M Series A from SoftBank
Gravis retrofits excavators and other existing heavy machinery with perception, compute and control systems rather than requiring purpose-built autonomous equipment. The company reports deployments across four continents, with customer and partner work involving Holcim, Taylor Woodrow and HD Hyundai, including autonomous excavation at Manchester Airport. Gravis describes the transaction as the largest Series A financing completed by a construction-robotics company.
Source - 2026-08-10 - Award - Gravis Robotics and Flannery funded for multi-excavator autonomy programme
The programme covers autonomous trenching, bulk excavation and truck loading. Testing will extend Gravis’s retrofit autonomy stack into a six-excavator, multi-machine trial with UK plant-hire company Flannery. The funded work is designed to validate coordinated autonomous earthmoving in operating conditions.
Source - 2026-03-06 - Award - Gravis Robotics wins Next Level Award for Gravis Rack
• Gravis Robotics' Gravis Rack was selected as the Contractors’ Choice for best technology at the 2026 CONEXPO-CON/AGG Next Level Awards. • The award was announced on March 6, 2026, during a ceremony on the Ground Breakers Stage. • Attendees voted for the Gravis Rack after evaluating 20 finalists over three days.
Source - 2026-03-03 - Deployment - Gravis Robotics expands into the US with autonomous construction equipment platform
Gravis announced full commercial expansion into the US at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026 in Las Vegas The company demonstrated autonomous earthmoving capabilities with partners Develon and Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas, including trenching and bulk excavation Gravis also introduced Gravis Copilot, an autonomy-ready machine-guidance platform for excavator operators built on the same perception and compute stack
Source - 2025-11-28 - Deployment - Gravis validates autonomous excavation with Morgan Sindall
Gravis’ November 2025 release describes field use with construction partners, and Morgan Sindall Construction says the robotic excavator can be as productive as a skilled machine driver while improving team efficiency in some situations. The retrofit system combines learning-based control with hydraulics, LiDAR, cameras and GNSS, while Gravis Slate provides a tablet interface for autonomy and augmented manual control. Gravis reports 30% higher output, reduced rework and improved safety across trenching, earthworks, grading and material handling; the release names Taylor Woodrow’s Manchester Airport project as the UK’s first large-scale active-site autonomous-excavation deployment.
Source - 2025-11-28 - Funding - Gravis Robotics raises $23M to scale autonomous earthmoving technology
Named investors or backers include IQ Capital, Zacua Ventures, Pear VC, Imad Ventures, Sunna Ventures, Armada Investment, Holcim. The financing supports continued product development, deployment scaling, and commercialization of the company's robotics platform.
Source - 2025-04-30 - Deployment - Gravis Robotics deploys autonomous excavator system in Holcim UK quarry trial
A Develon crawler excavator fitted with Gravis autonomy was trialed at Holcim UK's Lee Moor quarry in Plymouth The system was used to feed a screener with sand and gravel in live quarry operations The trial supported subsequent commercialization work between Holcim, HD Hyundai XiteSolution, and Gravis Robotics
Source - 2025-04-15 - Product Launch - Gravis Robotics launches Anywhere Autonomy platform with six OEMs at Bauma 2025
Gravis launched its Anywhere Autonomy platform at Bauma 2025 The launch highlighted manufacturer-agnostic deployment across multiple OEMs The platform extends Gravis retrofit autonomy model for excavators and related earthmoving equipment
Source - 2025-04-10 - Partnership - Gravis Robotics signs three-way MOU with HD Hyundai XiteSolution and Holcim
HD Hyundai XiteSolution, Gravis Robotics, and Holcim signed a strategic agreement at bauma 2025 to develop and commercialize autonomous technology for quarry operations and confined material-handling workflows. The partnership is centered on integrating jointly developed Gravis autonomy with Develon equipment across Holcim sites, with target use cases including truck loading, hopper feeding for crushers and screeners, confined material handling at asphalt and aggregate plants, and stockyard management. Gravis is positioned as the autonomy developer and field-deployment support partner, while Holcim provides operational sites and use-case validation and HD Hyundai XiteSolution provides the equipment platform through its Develon brand.
Source - 2022-10-01 - Company Formation - Gravis Robotics is founded as an ETH Zurich spinout for autonomous construction machinery
Gravis Robotics was founded in October 2022 as a spinout from ETH Zurich The company was formed to develop technologies that make large-scale construction machines autonomous Early work built on ETH Zurich research in robotic excavation and autonomy for heavy machinery
Source
Relations
Relationships
- HD Hyundai XiteSolution
Develon Autonomy Integration Partner - Gravis integrates its autonomy stack with HD Hyundai XiteSolution Develon quarry equipment.
- Taylor Woodrow
Construction Deployment Partner - Gravis deployed autonomous excavation at a Taylor Woodrow project at Manchester Airport.
- Morgan Sindall Construction
Construction Validation Partner - Morgan Sindall Construction validates Gravis autonomous excavators on active construction work.
- Holcim
Operating Sites / Deployment Validation Partner - Gravis and Holcim validate autonomous quarry operations using Gravis autonomy on Develon equipment.
- Flannery Plant Hire
Autonomous Excavator Rental Partner - Flannery offers rental excavators equipped with the Gravis Rack autonomy system.
Context
Comparable profiles
- AIM Intelligent Machines
stack adjacency - Construction Autonomy System
- Hitachi Construction Machinery
stack adjacency - Construction Autonomy System
- Bedrock Robotics
stack adjacency - Construction Autonomy System
- Cosmic Robotics
stack adjacency - Construction Autonomy System
- Legend Robot
stack adjacency - Construction Autonomy System
- Pace Robotics
stack adjacency - Construction Autonomy System
Context tags
- Construction autonomy system - Stack Layer
- Construction equipment operators - Customer Environment
- Construction earthmoving autonomy - Peer Group
- Autonomous excavation and grading - Workflow