Jonas Gruetter is Co-Founder of Grip (YC S26), a physical AI company building intelligent robotic systems for waste and recycling, backed by Y Combinator's Summer 2026 cohort.

Motivated by witnessing plastic contamination in agricultural soil, Jonas co-founded Grip alongside Stanislaw Piasecki to tackle one of the most pressing environmental challenges in waste infrastructure.

Jonas presented research at ICRA 2026 in Vienna on a Reinforcement Learning framework enabling a 12-ton excavator to autonomously clear irregular boulders using only a standard bucket, demonstrating deep expertise in physical AI and robotic manipulation.

Grip's systems combine learning-based manipulation and custom hardware to identify and sort objects from constantly changing, unstructured waste streams, with the goal of helping waste operators reduce manual sorting, recover more valuable material, and lower contamination.

Grip is building the intelligent manipulation layer for waste infrastructure, targeting composting, biogas, and recycling facilities, with a mission to make the circular economy more efficient and scalable across diverse waste streams.