The Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026 provides a data-driven overview of Switzerland’s scale-up ecosystem, including several findings that are particularly relevant to robotics, industrial technology and deep tech.
Key findings for robotics
Robotics is a significant part of the Swiss scale-up landscape
The report groups robotics together with industrial technology, hardware, aerospace and future computing. This Industrial, Hardware & Robotics cluster represents 17% of the 265 identified Swiss scale-ups.
University spin-offs remain a major source of scale-ups
Across the full scale-up population, 43% are spin-offs from Swiss universities or research institutions. ETH Zurich and EPFL are particularly important contributors, highlighting the strong link between academic research and company creation in areas such as robotics and deep tech.
R&D remains at the core of Swiss scale-ups
In seven out of ten surveyed scale-ups, more than 25% of employees work in R&D, and nearly nine out of ten employ at least one PhD. These figures reflect the research intensity of the Swiss innovation ecosystem and are particularly relevant for robotics companies built around advanced engineering and scientific development.
Sales is a major challenge for robotics companies
Robotics and industrial technology companies report the highest level of sales difficulty among the sectors analysed. 12 of 13 Robotics & Industrial companies identify sales and customer acquisition as a significant operational challenge. Long B2B sales cycles, deployment requirements and the complexity of industrial customers are important factors.
Relocation pressure is particularly high in hardware and robotics
Among companies in the Industrial, Hardware & Robotics cluster, 65% have seriously considered relocating part or all of their activities. This is the highest share among the sectors examined in the report and points to the challenges of financing, industrialising and internationally scaling hardware-intensive companies from Switzerland.
Switzerland remains strong for technical talent
The report finds that deep-tech companies experience fewer recruitment challenges than non-deep-tech companies. The ANYbotics case illustrates Switzerland’s strength in attracting robotics engineers and researchers, particularly around ETH Zurich. However, experienced profiles in sales, product management, marketing and international industrial markets can be harder to find locally.
Scaling hardware requires patient capital
The report highlights the particular financing needs of hardware companies. The Ecorobotix case shows how scaling robotics requires significant working capital for production, inventory, international distribution, customer support and market expansion. More broadly, the share of later-stage capital attributed to Swiss investors fell to 13% in 2025, underlining the growing importance of foreign capital for Swiss scale-ups.
International growth does not necessarily mean moving core R&D abroad
The examples of ANYbotics and Ecorobotix show a recurring model: core technology, R&D and engineering remain anchored in Switzerland, while sales, deployment, manufacturing and market-facing activities expand internationally.
What this means for the Swiss robotics ecosystem
The report confirms that Switzerland has strong foundations for building robotics companies: excellent research institutions, a strong spin-off pipeline, highly qualified engineering talent and a deep-tech-oriented ecosystem.
The main challenge lies in the next phase: turning strong robotics startups into global scale-ups. The key pressure points identified in the report are sales, international market access, experienced commercial talent, industrialisation and access to later-stage capital.
For the robotics community, the report therefore provides a useful benchmark for understanding not only where Switzerland is strong, but also where additional ecosystem support is needed to help robotics companies scale while keeping their technological base in Switzerland.
