COMPANY PROFILE / FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
Soft Robotics (now Oxipital AI)
A Harvard-born maker of “soft grippers”; in August 2024 it sold its gripper business to Germany’s Schmalz, and the company now concentrates on visual AI
Soft Robotics is a privately held U.S. company founded in 2012 by Dr. George M. Whitesides of Harvard University. It sold “soft grippers”, whose fingers are made of soft materials such as silicone and bend under air pressure to grasp objects, mainly to food plants. It is based in Bedford, Massachusetts. Its sales and profit could not be confirmed from official materials.
However, the company no longer makes grippers. On 6 August 2024 it announced the divestiture of its gripper business assets to the Schmalz Group of Germany. What was sold is the product family called mGrip, its patents and its know-how, as announced by Schmalz. The remaining business is 3D-vision and AI inspection and robotic picking, and the company says it has become “Oxipital AI”. The official website is now owned by Oxipital AI.
Centering on this “sale and reorganization”, the article draws on the company’s official materials (including archived copies of its former website), official announcements by Oxipital AI and Schmalz, SEC Form D filings and public patent records, and sets out what could be confirmed and what could not. The point of interest for materials is that Schmalz itself states “fingers made of silicone”.
- At a glance: Soft Robotics and its place in functional materials
- Logo and naming
- Where the company sits in functional materials
- Company scale
- Resources committed to functional materials
- Track record
- Plans
- What the company is aiming for in functional materials
- Partnership map for functional materials
- Technologies, products and services
- Risks
- Glossary
- References
- Claim-to-source audit
1. At a glance: Soft Robotics and its place in functional materials
Massachusetts, U.S.32 Crosby Drive (2022 Form D and Oxipital AI’s announcement). The 2015 and 2018 Form D filings list Cambridge
(soft grippers)The gripper business went to Schmalz in August 2024. No materials or components business in this field could be confirmed for the company today
pneumatic soft grippersSchmalz’s current page says “fingers made of silicone (optional FDA-compliant), IP69K”. The company’s former site advertised patents on “finger materials”
Visual AI: Oxipital AIThe sale took effect on 5 August 2024 (Schmalz). The price is not disclosed
Soft Robotics was a company that turned Harvard’s work on robots made of soft materials into grippers usable in food plants. Its 2024 website stated “116 patents and trade secrets (finger materials, manufacturing methods and AI algorithms)” and “hundreds of systems in daily operation” Sourced.
But the gripper business moved to Schmalz in August 2024, and the company became a visual-AI company. One can no longer buy a “Soft Robotics product” under that name; mGrip is sold as a Schmalz product Sourced. The performance figures are manufacturer’s stated values with no published test conditions. The sale price and the scale of Oxipital AI could not be confirmed Not yet confirmed.
2. Logo and naming
The logo could not be obtained. The current official website (softroboticsinc.com) has been replaced by a page about Oxipital AI and shows no Soft Robotics logo image. Archived copies of the former site (Internet Archive) are held by a third-party preservation service, so images taken from them are not logo images obtained from the official website, and this article does not place them. The box above is a text rendering of the name.
Naming: the company is Soft Robotics (Soft Robotics Inc.). Because the spelling is the same as that of the research field called soft robotics (robots made of soft materials), searches need to separate the field from the company. The product names mGrip and mGripAI are now handled by different companies (mGrip by Schmalz; the visual-AI side of mGripAI by Oxipital AI).
Official site (now owned by Oxipital AI): https://softroboticsinc.com/3. Where the company sits in functional materials
Soft Robotics’s past business was components & devices (soft grippers), and its position was startups & new approaches (commercializing pneumatic soft actuators made of soft materials). It is the company that turned the materials in our explainers on soft actuators and artificial muscles and on polyurethanes and elastomers into grippers that can handle food. The business of Oxipital AI today is centered on visual AI, and no materials or components business in this field could be confirmed. What the official materials confirm about its businesses is below.
| Business / product | Role at Soft Robotics (to 2024) | Current state | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soft finger grippers (mGrip) | Core product. Silicone finger-type grippers bent by air pressure; centered on food handling | Schmalz acquired the product family, patents and know-how effective 5 August 2024. The existing Boston-area site continues | Sourced (Schmalz announcement) |
| mGripAI | A package combining 3D vision, AI and soft grippers for bulk picking. The company said “more than 90 picks per minute per robot, application dependent” | The gripper part is with Schmalz; the visual-AI part is in Oxipital AI’s business (per Oxipital AI) | Sourced (company statement) / the current product name and offering not confirmed |
| Visual inspection and robotic picking (visual AI) | Part of mGripAI on the 2024 website | Oxipital AI’s core business today (food processing, agriculture, consumer goods) | Sourced (Oxipital AI announcement) |
| Patents | The 2024 website stated “116 patents and trade secrets” (finger materials, manufacturing methods, AI algorithms) | In public records the current holder of the gripper patents is Schmalz Flexible Gripping Inc. The ownership of the AI-related ones could not be confirmed | Sourced (public record) / AI-related not confirmed |
4. Company scale
Soft Robotics is privately held and publishes no financial statements. The scale that official materials and SEC Form D filings allow us to confirm is shown below Sourced.
| Item | What was confirmed |
|---|---|
| Sales, profit, debt | Not disclosed. Not stated on the website (including archived copies), in announcements or in Form D filings |
| Employees | Not disclosed |
| Founding / headquarters | Founded in 2012 by Dr. George M. Whitesides of Harvard University (the history on the 2024 website). The 2015 Form D also gives the year of incorporation as 2012. Headquarters: Cambridge (Form Ds of 2015 and 2018), then Bedford (Form D of 2022) |
| Leadership | Mark Chiappetta has been President and CEO since January 2024 (he joined in 2016 as founding CTO and later became COO). The 2022 Form D was signed by Jeff Beck (CEO); the 2015 and 2018 filings by Carl E. Vause (CEO). Directors in 2022: Jeff Beck, Carmichael Roberts, George Whitesides, Adam Sharkawy, Rory O’Driscoll and Kevin Dunlap. At Oxipital AI, the CEO is Mark Chiappetta and the VP of Product and Marketing is Austin Harvey |
| Track record (company statements) | “Hundreds of systems in daily operation worldwide” and “billions of successful picks” (2024 website). Customers named: Just Born Quality Confections, Dominos, Johnsonville, consumer-goods manufacturers and an e-commerce company. The as-of date and counting scope of the figures are not stated |
| Investors (2024 website) | ABB Technology Ventures, Calibrate Ventures, FANUC, Honeywell Ventures, Hyperplane Venture Capital, Johnsonville Holdings, Marel, Material Impact, Scale Venture Partners, Tekfen Ventures, Tyson Ventures, Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. |
| Funding (SEC Form D) | December 2015: offering of about US$9.45 million, about US$4.45 million sold (10 investors). May 2018: about US$20.25 million sold (including conversion of debt; 9 investors). December 2022: offering of about US$35.95 million, about US$31.65 million sold (16 investors; first sale 16 November 2022). This article does not add the filings up, because their scope and overlap cannot be confirmed. No Form D after 2022 could be found in the public database |
Press reports and investment-information sites give several figures for cumulative funding and valuation, but they are not official materials, so this article does not use them. Expressions such as “world’s first” and “industry-leading” are the company’s own, and independent verification was not checked here. The sale price is not stated in either the Schmalz or the Soft Robotics announcements.
5. Resources committed to functional materials
Because the company is privately held, disclosure of amounts is limited. The four points of people, money, external moves, and universities and public funding are set out below, showing what could and could not be confirmed.
| Item | What was confirmed | Status |
|---|---|---|
| People (R&D base and staff) | Bedford is the headquarters. R&D headcount is not disclosed. In the August 2024 sale, the gripper patents and know-how went to Schmalz, which said it will continue the existing Boston site (whether employees transferred could not be confirmed from official announcements) | Sourced / headcount not confirmed |
| Money (R&D spend, capital spending, funding) | Actual R&D spend and capital spending are not disclosed. Funding is visible in three Form D filings (2015, 2018, 2022). The sale price is not disclosed | Sourced / actual spend not disclosed |
| External investments, acquisitions, joint ventures, divestments | Divestment: in August 2024 the gripper business assets were sold to Schmalz (announcements by Soft Robotics and Oxipital AI, and by Schmalz). No investment in, or acquisition of, other companies and no joint venture could be confirmed | The divestment is Sourced / the price is not confirmed |
| Universities, research institutes, public funding | University: Whitesides’s lab at Harvard University (the founder Whitesides was still a director in 2022, and is an author of papers such as the 2011 PNAS paper “Multigait soft robot”). Public funding: no U.S. government grant could be confirmed from official materials | University: Sourced / public funding not confirmed |
Status of main products and facilities
The table below covers what could be confirmed from each company’s official materials. Production capacity and shipments are not disclosed in any case.
| Product / facility | Who handles it now, and where | Scale (stated) | Stage | Date and source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| mGrip (finger-type grippers) | Schmalz. The existing site in the Boston area, Massachusetts, continues | “Up to 120 picks per minute”, “load capacity up to 10 kg”, “workpiece width up to 300 mm” (Schmalz’s stated values) | On sale (as a Schmalz product) | Schmalz announcement (August 2024) and page (2026) |
| mGrip Basic (new model) and control module | Schmalz | Fingers made of silicone (optional FDA-compliant), IP69K, up to 120 picks per minute | Launched (announced by Schmalz in 2026) | Schmalz announcement (2026) |
| mGripAI (formerly Soft Robotics’s package) | Not stated | “More than 90 per minute” (former website, application dependent) | Current offering not confirmed | Archived copy of the company website (April 2024) |
| Oxipital AI’s visual AI | Bedford | Not disclosed | Described by the company as in service (customers and scale not confirmed) | Oxipital AI announcement |
6. Track record
| When | What happened | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Whitesides’s lab at Harvard reported in PNAS a pneumatically actuated robot made only of soft polymers (elastomers) (“Multigait soft robot”). The same year, “Soft Robotics for Chemists” appeared in Angewandte Chemie | The research origin |
| 2012 | Soft Robotics founded (by Dr. Whitesides; history on the 2024 website) | From research to business |
| December 2015 | Form D (about US$4.45 million sold, 10 investors) | Early funding |
| 2016 | Mark Chiappetta joined as founding CTO (the website’s leadership profile) | Strengthening product development |
| May 2018 | Form D (about US$20.25 million sold, including conversion of debt) | Funding for expansion |
| November to December 2022 | Form D (about US$31.65 million sold, 16 investors). Headquarters in Bedford | The last funding that can be confirmed |
| January 2024 | Mark Chiappetta became President and CEO | A change of management |
| 5 to 6 August 2024 | The gripper business assets sold to Schmalz (taken over on 5 August per Schmalz, announced 6 August; Soft Robotics announced on 6 August that it “becomes Oxipital AI”) | A reorganization of the business |
| 2025 to 2026 | softroboticsinc.com is owned by Oxipital AI (as shown in 2025). In June 2026 Schmalz announced mGrip Basic. In July 2026 Oxipital AI updated its announcement page | Both companies’ businesses continue |
7. Plans
These are each company’s plans and statements, not achievements Not yet confirmed.
None of the following is stated in primary sources Not yet confirmed.
Sales, profit, headcount, R&D spend; the sale price and any transfer of employees; whether Oxipital AI is a renamed or a new legal entity, its scale and its customers; the current offering of mGripAI; ownership of the AI-related patents and trade secrets; funding after December 2022; details of the finger material (type, hardness and formulation of the silicone), endurance (life under pneumatic cycling) and the test conditions behind each stated figure; the as-of date and count for the installed base (the only expression in official materials is “hundreds of systems”).
8. What the company is aiming for in functional materials
This section includes points the company does not state directly. They are set out as inferences, within what the primary information allows, with their grounds.
| What can be read | Primary information behind it | Status |
|---|---|---|
| It chose to let go of the material and mechanical part (the gripper) and concentrate on software (visual AI) | August 2024 announcement: gripper business assets sold to Schmalz, with a focus on “vision inspection and defect detection”. Oxipital AI’s description: “end-to-end visual AI”, with inspection and picking as the remaining business | Sourced (company statement) / the reason is an Inference |
| It judged that grippers are easier to keep going with a company that has volume production and a sales network (Schmalz) | Schmalz acquired them to expand in food handling, and describes itself as selling in around 70 countries (Oxipital AI’s announcement). The products continue on sale after the sale | Inference |
| In this field (soft actuators) it saw value coming from a system tied to an application rather than from the material alone | The 2024 website describes mGripAI as a package of “3D vision + AI + soft grippers” and does not put the sale of the material alone first | Inference |
The reading that “it gave up the grippers and focused on visual AI” rests on where the line was drawn between what was sold and what remained. What Schmalz’s announcement lists as sold is “the mGrip product family, all finger gripper configurations, patents and associated know-how”. What Oxipital AI’s announcement describes as remaining is “visual inspection and robotic picking, for food processing and similar”. The 2024 website counted “patents on finger materials” and “patents on AI algorithms” together in its 116, so which patents were sold and which remained matters, but official materials do not say.
That said, the reason for the sale is not stated in official materials. This is our reading of what the announcements say Not yet confirmed.
9. Partnership map for functional materials
The company’s relationships are characterized by its business having split in two, with the materials and mechanical side moving to Schmalz. No joint venture with an operating company could be confirmed. Customers and shipment volumes could not be confirmed Not yet confirmed.
10. Technologies, products and services
What follows is what each company’s official materials state. All figures are manufacturer’s stated values; where the materials give no baseline or conditions, that is noted. They do not rank any product against others, and values under different conditions cannot be compared. For the material principles, see our explainer on soft actuators and artificial muscles Sourced.
| Item | Manufacturer’s stated value or description | Basis and conditions (as given in the materials) |
|---|---|---|
| mGrip (Schmalz’s product category, shown alongside the August 2024 announcement) | Load capacity up to 10 kg, workpiece width up to 300 mm, gripping speed up to 120 picks per minute. FDA-compliant materials (POM, silicone, stainless steel), protection class IP69K | The conditions for load and speed, and the form of the workpiece, are not stated |
| mGrip Basic (Schmalz, 2026) | A pneumatically controlled finger gripper. Fingers made of silicone (optional FDA-compliant), finger-module protection class IP69K. Up to 120 picks per minute, load capacity 10 kg, workpiece width 300 mm. Control module SRCU Basic (24 V supply; output pressure adjusted manually) | FDA compliance is described as “optional”. The scope of compliance and the tests are not stated |
| mGripAI (formerly Soft Robotics, 2024) | A package of 3D vision, AI and soft grippers. More than 90 picks per minute per robot (application dependent). IP69K. More than 20 filter and sort parameters, and data with every pick | Noted as “application dependent”. The objects and conditions are not stated |
| Oxipital AI (today) | Visual inspection (product inspection) and vision-guided robotic picking. Food processing, agriculture and consumer goods are the focus | No performance figures could be confirmed |
| Installed base (formerly Soft Robotics, 2024) | “Hundreds of systems in daily operation” and “billions of successful picks” | As-of date and counting scope are not stated |
(1) What it is made of: silicone fingers and air pressure. Schmalz’s current page says the fingers of the mGrip Basic are “made of silicone (optional FDA-compliant)” and the gripper’s materials are “POM, silicone and stainless steel”. The 2011 PNAS paper at the origin of the company reported a robot built only of elastomers, formed by soft lithography and driven at low air pressure (under 10 psi). Whether the idea in that line of work (make air chambers inside a soft material and bend it with pressure) is the same as in today’s mGrip is not written in official materials, but the description “pneumatically controlled finger gripper” is consistent with it.
(2) Material design trades grip force against gentleness. The softer the finger, the better it conforms to foods of varying shape (Schmalz: “adapt to the shape of the articles without damaging them”), but the less holding force it has for heavy loads. The maximum load of 10 kg reads as a value that holds within that trade-off, but the materials do not say for which shape or material of workpiece (commentary). The hardness, formulation and surface finish of the silicone are not stated in official materials.
(3) In food settings, washing and durability are the materials issues. IP69K is known as a protection class for withstanding high-temperature, high-pressure wash water (commentary), and reads as a rating meant for food-plant cleaning. At the same time, a finger bent tens of thousands of times by air pressure is subject to fatigue and wear. Its life (cycle count) is not stated in official materials.
(4) Reading the numbers. “More than 90 per minute (mGripAI)” and “up to 120 picks per minute (mGrip)” are for different products from different parties, with no stated conditions, and are not on the same scale. This article does not judge superiority over other approaches (suction, mechanical fingers). It gives no individual advice on food safety or hygiene either.
11. Risks
| Risk | Detail | Status |
|---|---|---|
| The business itself has changed | One can no longer buy grippers under the Soft Robotics name: the products are Schmalz’s and the company is Oxipital AI. This article is therefore mostly a record of past facts for “business in this field” | Sourced |
| Opaque finances | Sales, profit, cash and the sale price are not in official materials. The last funding that can be confirmed is the December 2022 Form D. This article cannot assess current financial health | Not confirmed |
| Legal entity and naming | How the statement that Soft Robotics “became Oxipital AI” relates to the legal name in the SEC filings (Soft Robotics Inc.) cannot be confirmed from official materials. The old name, the new name and the product names (mGrip, mGripAI) are mixed in searches and contracts | Not confirmed |
| Ownership of patents and trade secrets | Public records show the gripper patents moved to Schmalz, but the ownership of AI-related ones and of patents excluded from the sale cannot be confirmed from official materials | Sourced (public record) / AI-related not confirmed |
| Opaque installed base and customers | “Hundreds of systems” and “billions of picks” are the company’s 2024 statements. What happened to operations and customer contracts after the sale cannot be confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Competing technologies and alternatives | Suction, mechanical fingers and other soft grippers coexist. The advantage of soft grippers is each company’s claim and this article does not compare. Market-size estimates are also not used | Not confirmed |
| Food and hygiene statements | “FDA-compliant (optional)” and “IP69K” are product statements by each company, and the scope of compliance and the tests are not stated. This article does not guarantee food safety | Sourced (company statement) |
12. Glossary
- Soft robotics
- A research field making robots and parts from soft materials such as elastomers. Here it is also the name of the company that commercialized the results.
- Soft gripper
- A device that grasps with soft fingers or the like. Here, one that uses silicone fingers bent by air pressure.
- Elastomer
- A rubber-like polymer that recovers after deformation. Silicone is one kind.
- Soft lithography
- A molding method that pours an elastomer into a mold to make fine shapes.
- IP69K
- A protection-class notation indicating resistance to cleaning with hot, high-pressure water. Often specified for equipment in food plants.
- FDA-compliant
- A product statement that a material meets U.S. FDA rules. The scope of compliance has to be checked product by product.
- mGrip / mGripAI
- The product name of the finger gripper / the product name of the package that adds 3D vision and AI to the gripper.
- Form D
- A notice filed with the SEC in the United States when a private (non-public) funding round is made. It shows the amount and number of investors, not sales.
- Manufacturer’s stated value
- A description or performance figure given by the manufacturer itself. It cannot be compared with other products unless the test conditions and version are the same.
13. References
- Soft Robotics (now owned by Oxipital AI) Official website (home page; notice of the August 2024 sale and the name change). https://softroboticsinc.com/
- Oxipital AI Soft Robotics Becomes Oxipital AI (announcement of 6 August 2024; updated 2 July 2026). https://www.oxipitalai.com/oxipital-ai-press-release/
- Soft Robotics Official website, “About Soft Robotics” (Internet Archive copy, 23 February 2024). History, 116 patents, investors, customers. https://web.archive.org/web/20240223071520/https://www.softroboticsinc.com/aboutus/
- Soft Robotics Official website, “Leadership” (Internet Archive copy, 25 May 2024). Profile of Mark Chiappetta. https://web.archive.org/web/20240525074055/https://www.softroboticsinc.com/aboutus/leadership/
- Soft Robotics Official website, “mGripAI” (Internet Archive copy, 18 April 2024). Product features (manufacturer’s stated values). https://web.archive.org/web/20240418000954/https://www.softroboticsinc.com/products/mgripai/
- Soft Robotics Official website home page (Internet Archive copy, 4 March 2024). Business description (3D vision, AI, IP69K grippers). https://web.archive.org/web/20240304231002/https://www.softroboticsinc.com/
- Schmalz Portfolio expanded: Schmalz takes over finger gripper from Soft Robotics Inc. (announcement of 6 August 2024). https://www.schmalz.com/en/career-company/latest/news/portfolio-expanded-schmalz-takes-over-finger-gripper-from-soft-robotics-inc
- Schmalz Grip what others leave behind (announcement of mGrip Basic and a control module; 2026). https://www.schmalz.com/en/career-company/latest/news/finger-gripper-mgrip-basic-grip-what-others-leave-behind
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission List of Form D filings for Soft Robotics Inc. (CIK 0001660461). https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001660461&type=D&dateb=&owner=include&count=40
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Soft Robotics Inc. Form D (signed 16 December 2015; offering up to US$9,450,764, amount sold US$4,450,764, 10 investors). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1660461/000166046115000002/primary_doc.xml
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Soft Robotics Inc. Form D (signed 18 May 2018; amount sold US$20,245,554 including conversion of debt, 9 investors). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1660461/000166046118000002/primary_doc.xml
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Soft Robotics Inc. Form D (signed 1 December 2022; offering up to US$35,946,521, amount sold US$31,652,124, 16 investors). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1660461/000166046122000002/primary_doc.xml
- Google Patents US10179411B2 Soft robotic grippers for cluttered grasping environments, high acceleration movements, food manipulation, and automated storage and retrieval systems (filed 20 January 2017, granted 15 January 2019; original assignee Soft Robotics Inc, current assignee Schmalz Flexible Gripping Inc). https://patents.google.com/patent/US10179411
- Google Patents US12134184B2 Field-assembled soft gripping for industrial and collaborative robots (filed 19 May 2023, granted 5 November 2024; original assignee Soft Robotics Inc, current assignee Schmalz Flexible Gripping Inc). https://patents.google.com/patent/US12134184
- Shepherd, R. F.; Ilievski, F.; Choi, W.; Morin, S. A.; Stokes, A. A.; Mazzeo, A. D.; Chen, X.; Wang, M.; Whitesides, G. M. Multigait soft robot. PNAS 108, 20400-20403 (November 2011). DOI checked in Crossref. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1116564108
- Ilievski, F.; Mazzeo, A. D.; Shepherd, R. F.; Chen, X.; Whitesides, G. M. Soft Robotics for Chemists. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 50, 1890-1895 (January 2011). DOI checked in Crossref. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201006464
14. Claim-to-source audit
| Claim in the text | Category | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The current website being a page about Oxipital AI, the announcement of the 6 August 2024 sale, the site’s owner | Sourced (company statement) | Reference 1 https://softroboticsinc.com/ |
| “Soft Robotics becomes Oxipital AI”, the sale of the gripper business assets to Schmalz (price not disclosed), the remaining visual-AI business, the headquarters, the CEO and manager, V-CORTX, food processing, agriculture and consumer goods | Sourced (company statement) | Reference 2 https://www.oxipitalai.com/oxipital-ai-press-release/ |
| Founding in 2012 (Dr. Whitesides), 116 patents and trade secrets, investors, customers, “hundreds of systems” and “billions of picks” | Sourced (company statement) | Reference 3 https://web.archive.org/web/20240223071520/https://www.softroboticsinc.com/aboutus/ |
| Mark Chiappetta’s career (founding CTO in 2016, later COO, President and CEO from January 2024) | Sourced (company statement) | Reference 4 https://web.archive.org/web/20240525074055/https://www.softroboticsinc.com/aboutus/leadership/ |
| mGripAI features (more than 90 per minute, IP69K, more than 20 parameters) | Sourced (manufacturer’s stated value) | Reference 5 https://web.archive.org/web/20240418000954/https://www.softroboticsinc.com/products/mgripai/ |
| The March 2024 business description (3D vision, AI, grippers) | Sourced (company statement) | Reference 6 https://web.archive.org/web/20240304231002/https://www.softroboticsinc.com/ |
| Schmalz’s acquisition of the mGrip family, patents and know-how (effective 5 August), continuation of the Boston-area site, expansion in food handling, mGrip specifications (10 kg, 300 mm, 120 picks per minute, FDA-compliant materials, IP69K) | Sourced (Schmalz announcement) | Reference 7 https://www.schmalz.com/en/career-company/latest/news/portfolio-expanded-schmalz-takes-over-finger-gripper-from-soft-robotics-inc |
| mGrip Basic and the control module (silicone fingers, optional FDA compliance, IP69K, 120 picks per minute), more than 100 application examples | Sourced (manufacturer’s stated value) | Reference 8 https://www.schmalz.com/en/career-company/latest/news/finger-gripper-mgrip-basic-grip-what-others-leave-behind |
| Three Form D filings (2015, 2018, 2022); legal name; addresses | Sourced | Reference 9 https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001660461&type=D&dateb=&owner=include&count=40 |
| The 2015 Form D (year of incorporation 2012, about US$4.45 million, 10 investors, CEO and directors) | Sourced | Reference 10 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1660461/000166046115000002/primary_doc.xml |
| The 2018 Form D (about US$20.25 million, including conversion of debt, 9 investors) | Sourced | Reference 11 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1660461/000166046118000002/primary_doc.xml |
| The 2022 Form D (about US$31.65 million, 16 investors, Bedford, signed by Jeff Beck, directors) | Sourced | Reference 12 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1660461/000166046122000002/primary_doc.xml |
| Title, dates, original assignee and current assignee (Schmalz Flexible Gripping Inc) of US10179411 | Sourced (public patent record) | Reference 13 https://patents.google.com/patent/US10179411 |
| Title, dates, original assignee and current assignee (Schmalz Flexible Gripping Inc) of US12134184 | Sourced (public patent record) | Reference 14 https://patents.google.com/patent/US12134184 |
| The 2011 PNAS paper (a robot of elastomers only, soft lithography, air pressure under 10 psi), with Whitesides as an author | Sourced (peer-reviewed paper) | Reference 15 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1116564108 |
| Bibliographic details of “Soft Robotics for Chemists” (Angewandte Chemie, 2011) | Sourced (peer-reviewed paper) | Reference 16 https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201006464 |
| Sales, profit, headcount, the sale price and employee transfers, Oxipital AI’s legal status, scale and customers, the current offering of mGripAI, ownership of AI-related patents, funding after 2022, finger-material details and endurance, test conditions | Not yet confirmed | This article’s summary and outlook (items that could not be confirmed in primary sources; this article) |
| The readings that it gave up the grippers and focused on visual AI, that a company with volume production and a sales network (Schmalz) suits the grippers better, and that it saw value in a system tied to an application | Inference | References 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 https://softroboticsinc.com/ https://www.oxipitalai.com/oxipital-ai-press-release/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240223071520/https://www.softroboticsinc.com/aboutus/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240304231002/https://www.softroboticsinc.com/ https://www.schmalz.com/en/career-company/latest/news/portfolio-expanded-schmalz-takes-over-finger-gripper-from-soft-robotics-inc |
| Classifying Soft Robotics as “formerly components & devices (soft grippers), a new-approach startup”, the four-type grouping, the glossary, and the fact that the logo could not be obtained | Our calculation | This article’s own grouping and outlook (this article) |
| A materials engineer’s view (silicone fingers and air pressure, grip force versus gentleness, washing and durability, reading the numbers) | Commentary | Commentary by this article (official materials read from a materials viewpoint; this article) |
Last updated: 10 October 2026 / Troy Technical
This article is based on the website of Soft Robotics (now Oxipital AI), including archived copies, on announcements by Oxipital AI and Schmalz, on SEC Form D filings, on public patent records and on peer-reviewed papers. It does not use market-research estimates or press-report figures. Passages marked “Inference” are our own readings of primary information, not company statements. Product performance figures are each company’s stated values and cannot be compared with values measured under other conditions. Company plans and targets are not confirmed and do not guarantee realization. This article does not advise individual readers on equipment selection, on food safety or hygiene, or on investment or procurement decisions.