The rebar cage is, in many ways, construction's stubborn analog holdout. While architects design in sleek 3D models and engineers optimize loads with sophisticated software, someone still has to bend and tie thousands of steel reinforcement bars by hand—backbreaking work that's changed little in decades.
MESH AG thinks it has a way forward. The ETH Zurich spin-off announced it has raised CHF 2.9 million (roughly $3.8 million) in seed funding to automate that workflow, bringing together an unusual mix of backers: ABB Robotics Ventures, construction chemicals giant Sika AG, Japanese contractor Shimizu Corporation, and a handful of deep-tech investors including Apprecia Capital, buildify.earth, and Switzerland's Aargauische Kantonalbank.
It's the kind of investor lineup that suggests both validation and ambition—spanning industrial robotics, materials science, and global construction reach. Sika, which posted CHF 11.2 billion in sales in 2025, framed its stake as part of a broader digitalization push. The company sees potential synergy between MESH's robotic production systems and its own construction materials portfolio.
The Birr-based company has already put its technology through real-world paces. More than one million rebar elements have reportedly passed through MESH systems, according to company sources, including deployment on the Gotthard Road Tunnel project—about as demanding a stress test as infrastructure work gets.
A Pedigree Rooted in Academic Experimentation
MESH emerged from ETH Zurich's Gramazio Kohler Research group, known for pushing robotic fabrication into architectural applications. The underlying "Mesh Mould" technology won Switzerland's Technology Award back in 2016 and was demonstrated in projects like the DFAB HOUSE, an experimental residence that doubled as a robotics testbed.
Co-founders Ammar Mirjan and Mattis Koh are known to have launched the company around 2022, translating academic prototypes into commercial reality. Mirjan, who earned his PhD at ETH after completing an apprenticeship in automation engineering at ABB, focused his research on robotic fabrication, including aerial construction systems—drones that build, essentially. Koh, a mechanical engineer with an ETH master's degree, worked as a research assistant on the Mesh Mould Prefabrication project before the spin-off.
The transition from lab to factory floor isn't always smooth. But MESH's platform is designed to sidestep one common friction point: the need for specialized programming. It ingests digital BIM and IFC design files and translates them directly into robot motion for rebar fabrication and assembly. The idea is that factory personnel can operate the system without writing code—a critical consideration for an industry not exactly overflowing with software engineers.
The modular approach encompasses production planning software, machine tending, automated tying and welding, and cage assembly. It's configurable, which matters when you're trying to slot advanced robotics into facilities with wildly varying layouts and capabilities.
From Tunnels to Broader Ambitions
One customer, SABAG AG, ran a MESH system for nine months on a major tunneling project, churning out thousands of cages and millions of ties, according to the company. (The Gotthard Road Tunnel work represents perhaps the highest-profile showcase to date.) An ETH Zurich profile from mid-2025 noted the startup employed around ten people and operated from an 800-square-meter facility in Birr—modest scale, but growing.
The funding round, reportedly structured as convertible preferred stock according to MarketScreener/S&P Capital IQ, is intended to fuel international expansion. MESH has posted openings for a lead robotics engineer, a sales director focused on industrial and global distribution channels, and several robotics mechatronics roles, all based in Switzerland for now.
The investor composition offers some clues about where expansion might lead. Sika's global footprint in construction materials, ABB's robotics distribution network, and Shimizu's presence across Asia create natural pathways into new markets. Whether those channels translate into actual deployment remains to be seen—construction automation has a history of promising pilots that struggle to scale.
Still, the bottleneck MESH is targeting is real enough. Labor shortages in skilled trades aren't easing, and prefabrication—building components in controlled factory settings before shipping them to job sites—has gained traction as a way to improve quality and timelines. If MESH can thread the needle between technical sophistication and operational simplicity, the market might be there.
The company's modular strategy could prove essential as it enters regions with different levels of automation readiness. Not every market will want—or can afford—a fully automated production line. Offering pieces of the solution, rather than an all-or-nothing proposition, provides flexibility. It's a hedge, in a sense, against the inevitable unevenness of global construction technology adoption.
For now, MESH remains a relatively small operation with big-name backing and a technology that's proven itself in some of Europe's most demanding infrastructure work. The jump from Swiss tunnels to international scale will test whether academic ingenuity can reshape an industry that's notoriously resistant to change.
