Zurich robotics startup Enact Intelligence has raised $30 million in pre-seed funding. The company came out of stealth on October 22, 2026, with backing from redalpine, Notion Capital and firstminute capital.
Mistral founder Arthur Mensch and AI researcher Yann LeCun joined as angel investors. Enact builds robots that sense force and touch, not just what their cameras see.
Enact did not disclose a valuation. The round converts to about €27 million.
| Detail | Enact Intelligence |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Zurich, Switzerland |
| Founded | March 2026 |
| Founder and CEO | Manuel Yves Galliker |
| Round | Pre-seed |
| Amount | $30 million (about €27 million) |
| Valuation | Not disclosed |
| Venture investors | redalpine, Notion Capital, firstminute capital |
| Angel investors | Arthur Mensch, Yann LeCun, Andrew Lonsberry, Thomas Wolf |
| Team size | 12 people |
| Announced | October 22, 2026 |
Enact Intelligence funding round and investors
Three venture firms backed the round: Swiss investor redalpine, London-based Notion Capital and firstminute capital. None was named as lead.
The angel list includes Arthur Mensch of Mistral and Yann LeCun, Meta’s former chief AI scientist and founder of AMI Labs. Andrew Lonsberry, founder of welding robot maker Path Robotics, also invested, according to Startupticker.
Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf also joined as an angel, Tech.eu reported.
Harald Nieder, general partner at redalpine, described the bet plainly: “Dexterity is the next frontier in robotics.” He said the firm backed Enact’s plan to use force data to improve existing robot models.
How Enact Intelligence gives robots a sense of touch
Most robots today rely mainly on vision. That limits how well they handle objects and how fast they learn, Enact said in its announcement.
Robots that add touch usually do it with separate force sensors. Enact says those sensors are often too costly and too fragile for factory use.
Enact measures force inside the robot’s actuators instead. The company compares this to how people feel tension in their muscles, not only at their fingertips.
The startup also builds the software layer. It plans to adapt existing AI models, such as video models, so they output robot actions. Enact says force data then helps those models learn from experience and perform tasks reliably.
The company says the approach works on any robot body, from a single arm to a full humanoid.
Who founded Enact Intelligence
Manuel Yves Galliker founded Enact in March 2026. He studied mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich and did research in Marco Hutter’s lab and at Caltech’s AMBER lab, i-SCOOP reported.
Galliker previously led the software team for 1X’s NEO humanoid robot. He also helped build 1X’s AI team in Silicon Valley, then worked at robotics lab Physical Intelligence.
Enact’s 12-person team includes engineers from Google DeepMind, 1X, Amazon Robotics, Helsing and Physical Intelligence. Philip Kneis, previously a deep tech investor at redalpine, joined to lead growth.
Galliker chose Zurich over the Bay Area on purpose. He told Startupticker that Silicon Valley is short of robotics and hardware engineers, while Zurich offers a deeper pool of them.
How Enact’s $30 million pre-seed compares
Enact’s round is large for its stage. Dealroom, citing Sifted, reported it as the largest pre-seed round ever raised in Switzerland.
The median AI pre-seed round was $500,000 between October 2025 and September 2026, according to FundingWatcher data. The median AI seed round was $3.1 million, and the median Series A was $18 million.
Enact’s $30 million is 60 times the median AI pre-seed. It is also larger than the median AI Series A.
For more on how Europe’s AI startups have raised this year, see our list of the top-funded AI startups in Europe.
What Enact Intelligence will do with the funding
Enact plans to grow its team fivefold by the end of 2027. That would take headcount from 12 to about 60.
The money will also speed up hardware and research work. Enact wants to deploy its first robots with industrial partners.
The company says it is already in talks with large European firms in manufacturing, infrastructure, retail and food processing. It has not named any customers.
Enact is hiring across robotics, AI research, mechanical engineering and infrastructure, The AI Insider reported.
Force-sensing robotics startups draw investor money
Enact is the second force-focused robotics startup to raise this month. On October 20, Eka Robotics raised a $150 million Series A at a $1.45 billion valuation, led by a16z and F-Prime, SiliconANGLE reported.
Eka pairs a force-sensitive gripper with its own AI model. Enact takes a different route by reading force from the actuators that move the robot.
Both deals land in a busy year for robot funding. Venture investment in humanoid robotics startups reached $8.7 billion in 2026 through July 22, according to Dealroom.
Our tracker of humanoid robotics startups with the most funding covers the larger players in that market.
FAQ
How much did Enact Intelligence raise?
Enact Intelligence raised $30 million, about €27 million, in a pre-seed round announced on October 22, 2026. The company did not disclose its valuation.
Who invested in Enact Intelligence?
Venture firms redalpine, Notion Capital and firstminute capital backed the round. Angel investors include Arthur Mensch, Yann LeCun, Andrew Lonsberry and Thomas Wolf.
What does Enact Intelligence build?
Enact builds robots and AI models that sense force and touch. It measures force inside the robot’s actuators rather than with separate sensors, aiming to improve how robots handle objects.
Who is the founder of Enact Intelligence?
Manuel Yves Galliker founded Enact in March 2026. He previously led software for 1X’s NEO humanoid and worked at Physical Intelligence. He studied at ETH Zurich.
Where is Enact Intelligence based?
Enact Intelligence is based in Zurich, Switzerland. Its founder chose Zurich over Silicon Valley to hire from the region’s robotics and hardware engineering talent pool.
