Swiss aerial robotics company Voliro has extended its Series A round, bringing its total raised to $23 million. The new funding includes the participation of built world venture firm noa and a debt facility provided by UBS. The original round was led by Cherry Ventures.
With this additional capital, Voliro aims to scale the deployment of its autonomous aerial inspection robots, designed to address pressing issues in infrastructure maintenance, industrial safety, and labor shortages.
The need for safer and more frequent industrial inspections is growing, as aging infrastructure and environmental pressures heighten operational risks. In Europe alone, studies indicate that nearly 30% of major industrial accidents involve infrastructure integrity failures. Globally, corrosion-related losses amount to an estimated $2.5 trillion annually.
Traditional methods—such as scaffolding or rope access—are often costly, reactive, and put workers at risk. Meanwhile, much of the non-destructive testing (NDT) workforce is aging, with a shortage of qualified inspectors looming across OECD countries.
The new funding will accelerate the development of Voliro’s next-gen platform, which includes deeper cloud integration, AI-powered inspection reporting, improved autonomy, and modular payloads. These upgrades will move the platform closer to full automation and enable more proactive intervention during inspections.
Voliro’s CEO, Florian Gutzwiller, emphasized the importance of their work: “Our technology represents a necessary tool to protect the built environment that we all rely on.”
By blending robotics with real-world safety and workforce challenges, Voliro is building solutions that benefit the energy transition, improve asset resilience, and appeal to a new generation of technicians.
Founded in 2019 and spun out of ETH Zurich’s Autonomous Systems Lab, Voliro has quickly expanded its global reach. The Zurich-based company now works with over 40 clients in 17 countries—including Chevron, Holcim, and Acuren—and performs more than 100 contact inspections per month.
Its flagship product, the Voliro T drone, uses a patented 360° tiltable rotor system to make stable contact with hard-to-reach surfaces, making it ideal for inspecting flare stacks, wind turbines, storage tanks, and chimneys. The system also supports interchangeable payloads for versatile industrial applications.
“Infrastructure is the backbone of modern civilization,” said Gutzwiller. “We’re delivering on a vision that once felt like science fiction: autonomous aerial robots at the forefront of industrial intelligence.”
Cherry Ventures led the original Series A round, while the recent extension welcomed support from noa and UBS. Gregory Dewerpe, Founder and Managing Partner at noa, said: “We’re delighted to partner with Voliro, a breakthrough platform with the potential to transform how critical infrastructure is maintained and safeguarded in the decades to come, and our first investment in my home country of Switzerland.”
Noa focuses on technologies that align with themes of sustainability, resilience, and workforce transformation—values reflected in Voliro’s mission and platform.
