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Hospital staff, especially nurses, spend a significant portion of their shifts on non-clinical logistics: transporting supplies, medications, lab samples, and equipment between departments. This is time taken directly away from patient care, and it contributes to staff burnout and inefficient use of expensive clinical labor. Existing hospital robots largely fail to solve this because they can't autonomously operate elevators or doors, requiring facility retrofits or human chaperones.
ZERA is an autonomous mobile robot for hospital logistics. Unlike existing solutions, ZERA physically operates elevators and doors on its own; no facility retrofits, no human chaperones required. It integrates with hospital systems (EHR, supply chain) with zero IT overhead, enabling true end-to-end autonomous delivery of supplies, meds, and lab samples across floors. This frees nursing staff from manual transport tasks, letting them focus on patient care. Pilot launching at Erlanger Health.
Our ideal customers are mid-to-large acute care hospitals and health systems (200+ beds) struggling with nurse burnout and rising labor costs tied to non-clinical logistics work. These are facilities running on a fixed footprint who can't justify costly infrastructure retrofits required by legacy hospital robots. We target hospital operations and supply chain leaders looking for a fast-to-deploy, RaaS model that requires no capital outlay. Multi-site health systems are a strong expansion path.
Healthcare faces a severe nursing shortage and rising labor costs, forcing hospitals to rethink how staff time is spent. Robotics hardware (sensors, compute, mobility) has matured and dropped in cost, making autonomous solutions commercially viable. Meanwhile, hospitals are under pressure to modernize without massive capex, favoring RaaS models over ownership. ZERA arrives at the intersection of these shifts: mature tech, urgent labor pain, and a market ready for low-friction automation.
We start with a focused pilot at Erlanger Health System to generate validated ROI data and a strong case study. From there, we pursue direct outreach to hospital operations and supply chain leaders at mid-to-large health systems, leveraging warm intros from our accelerator and investor networks. Conferences like the Robotics Summit and MassRobotics' Healthcare Catalyst program give us direct access to decision-makers.
TAM ($431.9B): 215,977 hospitals globally × ~$2M avg annual logistics spend, sizing the full problem. SAM ($10.95B): ~26,000 hospitals across US, Europe, ME, ANZ, sized bottoms-up via robot economics, ~182,500 robots at avg $5K/robot/mo (range $3K-$10K by usage). SOM ($150M): Year 5-7 target of 500 hospitals, 2,500 robots (5/hospital), $5K/robot/mo = $300K/hospital/yr, ~1.4% penetration of SAM.
Key competitors: Diligent Robotics (Moxi), Aethon (TUG), and Savioke, which pioneered hospital delivery robots. Most require facility retrofits or human escorts for elevators/doors, limiting true autonomy and ROI. ZERA differentiates by physically operating elevators and doors on its own, no retrofits, no chaperones, plus zero-IT-integration deployment. This means faster installs, lower total cost, and real end-to-end autonomy across hospital floors that legacy competitors can't match.
Built our MVP in 7 months from founding. Signed a 3-month pilot with Erlanger Health System, launching mid-July 2026. Backed by NVIDIA Inception, MassRobotics Healthcare Catalyst (Cohort 5), and CO.Lab Accelerator. Presented ZERA live at MassRobotics' Healthcare Catalyst Demo Day and the Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston, drawing strong interest from hospital operators and industry leaders. We're moving fast: from concept to a real hospital deployment in under a year.
We are pre-revenue. Our 3-month pilot with Erlanger Health System launches mid-July 2026 and will validate ZERA's ROI in a live hospital setting. Following a successful pilot, we'll convert to a paid RaaS contract, targeting $5K/robot/month (range $3K-$10K based on usage), with initial revenue expected by late 2026. Our go-to-market is pilot-to-paid-conversion within the same health system, followed by direct outreach to comparable hospitals using validated pilot data as proof.
n/a
Raising Details
Pre-seed Round - $1.5M - SAFE
Use of Funds / Milestones
Funds will primarily go toward building 2-4 additional robots to run multiple hospital pilots in parallel, validating ZERA across different facility environments. Key milestone: successfully complete our Erlanger pilot and use that data to finalize a commercial-ready version of ZERA, positioning us to move into direct hospital sales. This round bridges us from single-pilot validation to a repeatable, sellable product, setting up our seed round around proven multi-site ROI data.
Raised External Capital?
Yes
Previous Round Name
Friends and Family
Was Round Priced?
No
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Hospital staff, especially nurses, spend a significant portion of their shifts on non-clinical logistics: transporting supplies, medications, lab samples, and equipment between departments. This is time taken directly away from patient care, and it contributes to staff burnout and inefficient use of expensive clinical labor. Existing hospital robots largely fail to solve this because they can't autonomously operate elevators or doors, requiring facility retrofits or human chaperones.
ZERA is an autonomous mobile robot for hospital logistics. Unlike existing solutions, ZERA physically operates elevators and doors on its own; no facility retrofits, no human chaperones required. It integrates with hospital systems (EHR, supply chain) with zero IT overhead, enabling true end-to-end autonomous delivery of supplies, meds, and lab samples across floors. This frees nursing staff from manual transport tasks, letting them focus on patient care. Pilot launching at Erlanger Health.
Our ideal customers are mid-to-large acute care hospitals and health systems (200+ beds) struggling with nurse burnout and rising labor costs tied to non-clinical logistics work. These are facilities running on a fixed footprint who can't justify costly infrastructure retrofits required by legacy hospital robots. We target hospital operations and supply chain leaders looking for a fast-to-deploy, RaaS model that requires no capital outlay. Multi-site health systems are a strong expansion path.
Healthcare faces a severe nursing shortage and rising labor costs, forcing hospitals to rethink how staff time is spent. Robotics hardware (sensors, compute, mobility) has matured and dropped in cost, making autonomous solutions commercially viable. Meanwhile, hospitals are under pressure to modernize without massive capex, favoring RaaS models over ownership. ZERA arrives at the intersection of these shifts: mature tech, urgent labor pain, and a market ready for low-friction automation.
We start with a focused pilot at Erlanger Health System to generate validated ROI data and a strong case study. From there, we pursue direct outreach to hospital operations and supply chain leaders at mid-to-large health systems, leveraging warm intros from our accelerator and investor networks. Conferences like the Robotics Summit and MassRobotics' Healthcare Catalyst program give us direct access to decision-makers.
TAM ($431.9B): 215,977 hospitals globally × ~$2M avg annual logistics spend, sizing the full problem. SAM ($10.95B): ~26,000 hospitals across US, Europe, ME, ANZ, sized bottoms-up via robot economics, ~182,500 robots at avg $5K/robot/mo (range $3K-$10K by usage). SOM ($150M): Year 5-7 target of 500 hospitals, 2,500 robots (5/hospital), $5K/robot/mo = $300K/hospital/yr, ~1.4% penetration of SAM.
Key competitors: Diligent Robotics (Moxi), Aethon (TUG), and Savioke, which pioneered hospital delivery robots. Most require facility retrofits or human escorts for elevators/doors, limiting true autonomy and ROI. ZERA differentiates by physically operating elevators and doors on its own, no retrofits, no chaperones, plus zero-IT-integration deployment. This means faster installs, lower total cost, and real end-to-end autonomy across hospital floors that legacy competitors can't match.
Built our MVP in 7 months from founding. Signed a 3-month pilot with Erlanger Health System, launching mid-July 2026. Backed by NVIDIA Inception, MassRobotics Healthcare Catalyst (Cohort 5), and CO.Lab Accelerator. Presented ZERA live at MassRobotics' Healthcare Catalyst Demo Day and the Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston, drawing strong interest from hospital operators and industry leaders. We're moving fast: from concept to a real hospital deployment in under a year.
We are pre-revenue. Our 3-month pilot with Erlanger Health System launches mid-July 2026 and will validate ZERA's ROI in a live hospital setting. Following a successful pilot, we'll convert to a paid RaaS contract, targeting $5K/robot/month (range $3K-$10K based on usage), with initial revenue expected by late 2026. Our go-to-market is pilot-to-paid-conversion within the same health system, followed by direct outreach to comparable hospitals using validated pilot data as proof.
n/a
Raising Details
Pre-seed Round - $1.5M - SAFE
Use of Funds / Milestones
Funds will primarily go toward building 2-4 additional robots to run multiple hospital pilots in parallel, validating ZERA across different facility environments. Key milestone: successfully complete our Erlanger pilot and use that data to finalize a commercial-ready version of ZERA, positioning us to move into direct hospital sales. This round bridges us from single-pilot validation to a repeatable, sellable product, setting up our seed round around proven multi-site ROI data.
Raised External Capital?
Yes
Previous Round Name
Friends and Family
Was Round Priced?
No
Unlock proprietary signals, deep-dive due diligence scores, and AI analysis available only to verified investors.
