Engineering Program Manager - Robotics

Watney, a San Francisco-based robotics startup targeting AI data centre operations, has raised $80 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to over $100 million. The round was co-led by Valor Atreides AI Fund and Hummingbird Ventures, with participation from existing investors Conviction, Abstract, and A*, plus Grant Gordon. Founded in 2023 by Ryan Gannon and Sean Cheong, Watney deploys dual-arm robots for cable replacement and server maintenance in hyperscale data centres. Meta is trialling Watney robots at facilities in Iowa and Ohio, with internal estimates suggesting the technology could replace up to 80% of certain technical tasks. The company claims its dexterous robot fleet operates at 99.99% uptime reliability. Watney competes with Swiss startup Exclaim Robotics, which raised $4.9 million in pre-seed funding, and Y Combinator-backed Shepherd Robotics, which is developing a broader-purpose robotics foundation model.

Ex-Google and NVIDIA roboticist raises $5M for AI data centre repair robots. August 4, 2026 * Exclaim Robotics has emerged from stealth with $4.95 million in seed funding, co-led by Playfair Capital and Founderful, to develop AI robots for automating data centre maintenance. * Founder Helen Oleynikova left ETH Zürich in January 2026 to build Exclaim full-time. * The Swiss startup aims to reduce labour-intensive maintenance, improve operational efficiency and strengthen Europe's growing robotics ecosystem. A Zurich robotics startup wants a robot, not a person, to open the next live AI server rack. Exclaim Robotics has come out of stealth with $4.95 million in pre-seed funding, co-led by Playfair Capital and Founderful, to build machines that do the maintenance work data centre operators increasingly can't send a human to do. The fresh capital will accelerate development of its robotic platform as data centre operators seek new ways to improve efficiency, reduce costs and minimise manual maintenance. The founder and the robot. Helen Oleynikova founded Exclaim after 15 years in robotics at Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Willow Garage and ETH Zürich, where she co-created nvblox, a 3D mapping and collision-avoidance tool now built into Nvidia's Isaac ROS. An earlier stint at Microsoft's Mixed Reality and AI Lab in Zurich put her on a robotics project for Azure data centres, her first real look at the problem. She left ETH in January 2026 to build Exclaim full time, joined by founding engineer Patrick Pfreundschuh, who holds a PhD from the same university. Two more founding engineers, longtime collaborators of hers, will join in 2027 after leaving their current jobs. The robot navigates a data hall on its own, finds a rack, and works the front face from floor to top rail without any changes to the building. It's starting narrow: cleaning and replacing fibre-optic connectors and SFPs (small pluggable network transceivers), copper cabling, and failed drives. YC-backed Boost Robotics builds similar repair robots for data centres. Watney Robotics is working on comparable autonomy for inside-the-facility logistics and maintenance. Gecko Robotics, further along and better funded, handles broader industrial inspection. Most of them span inspection and logistics. Exclaim believes everything on one job: hands-on repair inside a live 800-volt rack. The investors and the market. The global data centre robotics market was worth roughly $13.7 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit $44.2 billion by 2030, a 21.6% compound annual growth rate, according to Research and Markets. It's part of a wider bet on the physical layer of AI infrastructure that TFN has tracked before, including Palo Alto-based PicoJool's $12 million raise for optical connectivity in hyperscale data centres. Playfair has co-led robotics bets rounds: a $4.3 million pre-seed round for fellow Zurich startup Ascento, an autonomous security patrol robot, and Recycleye, an AI waste-sorting company it has since exited. As data centre operators worldwide continue to invest in larger and more complex facilities, the need for autonomous maintenance solutions is expected to grow alongside these investments. The startup also joins a growing cohort of European robotics companies developing AI systems for infrastructure, logistics and industrial environments.