The archive · Hardware & Devices · Product decision · 2026
Exclaim Robotics bets robots, not humans, open the next live 800V AI server rack
Zürich's Exclaim Robotics emerged from stealth in August 2026 with a €4.29M pre-seed to build autonomous robots for hazardous data-centre break-fix work.
Exclaim Robotics
What the business is
Exclaim Robotics is a Zürich-based startup building autonomous mobile robots that perform routine repair and maintenance inside AI data centres: navigating a data hall, positioning at a rack and working the front face from floor to top rail without building changes. It starts with the highest-volume break-fix tasks — cleaning and replacing fibre-optic connectors, SFPs, copper cabling and failed drives — and hands off to a remote operator when its confidence is low.
Starting capital：A €4.29M (about $4.95M) pre-seed round announced 2026-08-03, co-led by Founderful and Playfair Capital, with angel participation; proceeds fund first prototypes, robotics hardware and engineering hires in Zürich.
How it started
Oleynikova's first look at the problem came while working on a robotics project for Azure data centres at Microsoft's Mixed Reality and AI Lab in Zürich. After co-creating nvblox at NVIDIA and holding a PhD in mapping and planning for cluttered environments from ETH, she left ETH in January 2026 to found Exclaim full-time, joined by Pfreundschuh and later two more long-time collaborators.
What happened
The company spent 2026 building the team and raising: the pre-seed closed with Founderful and Playfair, and two more founding engineers join in 2027. Its stated method is to train in simulation first, where a robot can practise a task far more times than on real hardware, then repeat on real racks with real sensors until reliable. Competitors named in coverage include YC-backed Boost Robotics, Watney Robotics and Gecko Robotics, mostly focused on inspection and logistics rather than hands-on repair.
How it ended up
As of 2026-09-06 Exclaim is pre-product: capital in place for first prototypes, engineering hiring underway in Zürich, and no robot shipped or priced. Its longer-term plan is to apply the same capability to high-voltage and energy infrastructure wherever maintenance is hazardous, remote or hard to reach.
Background
Exclaim Robotics, a Zürich startup founded in 2026 by Helen Oleynikova, builds autonomous mobile robots for repair and maintenance inside AI data centres. After 15 years at Willow Garage, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA and ETH Zürich — where she co-created nvblox, the mapping library now in NVIDIA Isaac ROS — she left ETH in January 2026 to start the company with founding engineer Patrick Pfreundschuh.
On 2026-08-03 Exclaim exited stealth with a €4.29M (about $4.95M) pre-seed co-led by Founderful and Playfair Capital. The robot navigates a data hall, positions at a rack and works the front face from floor to top rail with no building changes, starting with the highest-volume break-fix jobs: cleaning and replacing optics and SFPs, copper cabling and failed drives, with remote-operator handoff when confidence is low.
The trigger is electrical: next-generation AI data centres distribute 800V DC inside the rack, so opening a cabinet carries arc-flash risk and ordinary maintenance becomes hazardous work, while technician supply lags the buildout. Exclaim trains in simulation first, then on real racks, and names YC-backed Boost Robotics, Watney Robotics and Gecko Robotics as adjacent competitors that mostly do inspection and logistics.
As of 2026-09-06 Exclaim is pre-product: the round funds first prototypes, hardware and Zürich engineering hires, with two more founding engineers joining in 2027. Its longer-term bet extends the same robots to high-voltage and energy infrastructure, wherever maintenance is hazardous, remote or hard to reach.
What has to be true
- The 800V DC transition turns a cost problem into a safety problem: arc-flash risk makes hand maintenance of live racks the kind of work operators will pay to automate.
- Physical work is the one data-centre layer still done by walking to the rack, so the wedge is large even though it starts with optics, cabling and drive swaps.
- Founder pedigree fits the hard part: Oleynikova's ETH mapping research and nvblox in NVIDIA Isaac ROS give the team credibility for dense, cluttered-environment autonomy.
- Starting with break-fix rather than full facility autonomy buys a near-term customer need while simulation-first training keeps real-hardware repetitions affordable.
What can be applied
Pick the jobs that are about to become illegal for humans, not the jobs robots do well today: an electrification step that makes existing work hazardous creates the product's opening.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-06 Exclaim Robotics is a pre-product Zürich startup with €4.29M from Founderful and Playfair, first prototypes funded and a stated path of simulation-first training before real-rack deployment. The open questions are reliability on live hardware, unit cost against human technicians, and whether data-centre operators adopt maintenance robots before the 800V fleet it predicts is widespread. If the bets hold, data-centre maintenance becomes its wedge into hazardous infrastructure work; if not, it joins the list of robotics startups ahead of their regulation and safety curve.
Sources
- Zürich-based Exclaim Robotics exits stealth with €4.29 million to build robots for AI data centre maintenance
- Ex-Google and NVIDIA roboticist raises $5M for AI data centre repair robots
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