Mimic Robotics Wins XTC’s Excellence in Applied AI Award in Vienna
Extreme Tech Challenge joined partners Speedinvest and The Autonomous in Vienna for two events exploring how AI and autonomous systems can move from breakthrough technology to real-world impact: Speedinvest’s Tech Mélange and The Autonomous Main Event.
At Tech Mélange, four European startups presented approaches to applying AI across robotics, security, energy and manufacturing. Following evaluation by XTC and Speedinvest, mimic robotics was selected as the winner of XTC’s Excellence in Applied AI Award. The company will join XTC’s global showcase at the AI:360 Summit in California on November 19.
A spinout of ETH Zurich, mimic develops dexterous robotic hands and AI models that learn manipulation skills from human demonstrations. Its work tackles one of the most difficult challenges in physical AI: enabling robots to handle varied tasks in environments built for people.
Young Sohn, Co-Founder of XTC, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Samsung Semiconductor, Chairman of HARMAN International, Founding Managing Partner of Walden Catalyst Ventures,and Co-Founder of Extreme Tech Challenge presented the award. During a closing session at The Autonomous, he spoke with Stefan Weirich, Co-Founder and CEO of mimic robotics, about the company’s technology and its path to real-world deployment.
That path requires careful choices about how to grow. Stefan described how mimic selects customer pilots and develops its technology with major automotive, manufacturing and logistics companies while preparing for broader deployment. His comments capture a challenge facing many deep tech startups: turning strong customer interest into a product that can be delivered reliably at scale.
Earlier at Tech Mélange, Young delivered a keynote, AI: What Comes Next. He explored how growing AI usage is increasing demand across compute, memory, networking and power, and why Europe must help more startups become scaleups capable of serving global customers at speed.
The Autonomous Main Event’s theme, “Building Trust for Autonomy to Scale,” provided a fitting setting for the award presentation. As AI moves into the physical world, promising demonstrations must become systems that people can trust and companies can deploy reliably at scale.
The finalists
- LaelapsAI is building an autonomous security platform that coordinates robots and stationary sensors to improve monitoring and response.
- Nomos Energy connects home batteries, electric vehicles, heat pumps and solar systems to electricity markets, helping provide flexibility to Europe’s grid.
- Silana combines robotics, AI and machine vision to automate garment production and support manufacturing closer to customers.
- Sunrise Robotics develops robotic workcells that use onboard perception to adapt to changing industrial environments.
Congratulations to Stefan and the mimic robotics team, and to all four finalists. Our collaboration with Speedinvest and The Autonomous is part of XTC’s global effort to find and support startups applying AI to consequential real-world challenges. This season’s ecosystem activities have also included collaborations with NXP in India, IT-Farm in Japan, and Korea’s National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) and Global Digital Innovation Network (GDIN).
