sensmore, a Berlin/Potsdam-based robotics startup, announced it has secured $7.3 million in funding to bring physical AI to the world’s largest mobile machinery. The funding was secured from a cohort of investors led by Point Nine Capital, and joined by international backers from the US and UK, including Acequia Capital, Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company, Prototype Capital, and Entrepreneur First.
Among the company’s backers are notable founders and industry veterans, including Amar Shah (Wayve), Michael Wax (Forto), Arnoud Balhuizen (former CCO of BHP, board member at Teck Resources), Thilo Konzok, Roby Stancel, Robin Dechant, Alexey Zhigarev, and Elmar Leiblein (former CEO of Thyssenkrupp Mining). And additional funding has been received from the State of Brandenburg and the European Union.
Value proposition: With labor shortages deepening and operational costs rising, sensmore supports essential sectors like construction, mining, and raw materials, with truly transformational automation that is robust, scalable, and built for the field. And the company is uniquely positioned to utilize its technology stack to deliver modular solutions that work in the field.
What sensmore does: As a full-system provider, sensmore retrofits existing heavy mobile machinery on site like limestone quarries with hardware and proprietary AI software. From haul trucks and dumpers to wheel loaders, sensmore automates whole fleets. And its technology transforms any machine into an autonomous and self-reasoning robot that can solve complex tasks in real time without prior training, enabling automation in production environments where it was previously out of reach.
At sensmore, automation is not built in isolation, but co-developed with the people who operate the machines every day. And this customer-first mindset is central to sensmore’s approach and success to date.
This roadmap includes sensmore Machine Assist for intelligent collision alerts and precision positioning.
- sensmore Site OS as a live operational layer for site supervisors and
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sensmore Eye for vision-based quality control.
Each module contributes to a platform designed for generating and using large volumes of real-time environment data, unlocking short-term gains while laying the groundwork for autonomous operations.
sensmore has already completed full rollouts at several of Europe’s largest open-pit sites, where customers like CEMEX and Lhoist are seeing measurable improvements in productivity and safety. And the company’s first fully automated LHD (Load-Haul-Dump) machine is now undergoing field testing and performs a complete load-and-carry cycle without human intervention.
sensmore is advancing the use of a fully integrated, end-to-end AI architecture for heavy mobile machines, which is an approach also being spearheaded by players like Wayve and Sereact in adjacent domains. Utilizing a combination of cameras, 4D radar, and AI, sensmore delivers an automation system that remains reliable even in the harshest conditions and adapts dynamically to unfamiliar situations without manual intervention.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our roadmap delivers immediate value through intelligent and assistive features from day one, while laying the data foundation for tomorrow’s full automation. We don’t just build for our customers – we partner with them to shape the automated future together.”
CEO and co-founder Maximilian Rolf
“Thinking Fast is our end-to-end network that lets machines react instantly and instinctively, like a person walking without thinking. Thinking Slow adds intelligent reasoning, the ability to understand what the task is, how to solve it, and why it matters.”
“Like Figure AI does for humanoids, we use a multimodal system that combines vision, language, and action context to solve complex real-world tasks, even those the machine has never seen before.”
CTO and co-founder Bjarne Johannsen
“sensmore is pioneering a new era of intelligent automation for heavy machines. What sets them apart is their ability to translate cutting-edge AI research into robust, modular solutions that work in the field today. Their deep customer collaboration and exceptional technical team are laying the foundation for a new wave of reindustrialization across mining, construction, and beyond.”
Ricardo Sequerra Amram, Partner at Point Nine
