Episode Details

In this special episode of the EU-Startups Podcast, we kick off a five-part interview series recorded during Leonard Launch Day in Paris, in partnership with Leonard, the innovation and foresight platform of the VINCI Group. Leonard supports startups and internal projects shaping the future of construction, infrastructure, energy, and mobility, and during their Launch Day we sat down with five companies from its 2026 cohort for in-depth conversations. The first interview in the series features Ryan Luke Johns, CEO of Gravis Robotics, a Swiss ConTech company enabling autonomy in heavy machinery. Gravis retrofits existing excavators and loaders with advanced robotics and software, transforming them into remote-controlled, semi-autonomous, or fully autonomous machines. We discuss why autonomy is becoming critical in construction, the challenges of deploying robotics in unpredictable environments, and why retrofitting existing equipment is key to real-world adoption. This is episode one of five, with one interview released each day this week (Monday to Friday). Key points in this episode: - Why autonomy in heavy machinery is becoming a necessity, not a luxury - The safety benefits of removing humans from high-risk machine operations - Retrofitting existing equipment versus building autonomous machines from scratch - The realities of deploying robotics on live construction sites - How human operators’ roles are evolving alongside autonomous systems