A Bit of History
Ecorobotix was born from the meeting between Steve Tanner, a farmer's son who spent part of his younger days helping with the tedious weeding of fields, and Aurélien Demaurex, son of an entrepreneur who contributed to the family start-up in the field of robotics.
Origin
With Engineering studies and a PhD in Microelectronics in his back pocket, Steve worked in the field of microelectronics R&D, but various applications on which he worked, seemed to him to be very far away from current societal and environmental challenges. While the tedious weeding operations in the meantime were being replaced by the general activity of spraying herbicides, damaging to the environment, an idea flourished in his head. What if he could use artificial vision and an autonomous robot to weed continuously through a light, energy-autonomous machine?
Beginnings
Steve met Aurélien during environmental protection activities. They got on extremely well with each other and the two friends tried to see if there was commercial viability in the idea. Convinced by this, they founded Ecorobotix Sàrl in 2014. The project grew over more than 2 years and it was a loan from the Foundation for Technological Innovation which allowed them to move to the start-up phase.
Growth
Since 2014, Steve has committed 100% of his time to the project. Aurélien has reduced his hours working on humanitarian projects to dedicate some of his time and a first employee was hired. Ecorobotix developed an initial prototype. Then, an improved prototype in 2015, thanks to the support of private investors and the Swiss Confederation, through a research project with EPFL and HE-Arc.
In 2016, Ecorobotix produced its first pilot machines and raised CHF 3 million, then exceeding CHF 10 million in 2018. A dozen robots were then trialled in the field in Switzerland, France, the Netherlands and Belgium. Ecorobotix gathered an impressive quantity of images across various crops, in order to train its algorithms.
Today
Ecorobotix is growing rapidly. At the end of 2023, the company has 100 employees! It has become a scale-up which markets its products and is focusing more and more on their industrialisation.
In its growth, Ecorobotix wants to remain grounded in its strong values. In June 2019, it achieved the B-Corp certification, issued to companies who meet the highest standards in social and environmental performance, legal responsibility and public transparency. B-Corp certification has been renewed in 2023