Ascento: The Venture Leader Technology providing robotic guards and AI software to patrol large, outdoor, private properties

13.03.2024 09:00, Rita Longobardi

Meet Alessandro Morra, CEO of Ascento. With a mission to support security provider, the startup's autonomous robots are designed to navigate any outdoor terrain with agility and stability of their legs. Alessandro and the other nine Swiss National Technology Team members will fly to Silicon Valley in April.

Name: Alessandro Morra
Location: Zürich, Switzerland
Nationality: Swiss & Italian
Education: ETH Zürich, Master Robotics
Job title: CEO & Co-Founder
Number of employees: 10
Money raised: USD 4.3M
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Venture Kick 2023


Can you tell us who your product or solution helps, and how?
Ascento creates advanced robotic systems for outdoor terrain navigation, deployed in industrial sites like warehouses and campuses. Ascento Guard detects intruders, checks perimeter integrity, monitors doors and windows, records property conditions, identifies hazards, and manages parking. It moves autonomously at 4.5km/h, charges itself, and can be quickly installed. It's available for hourly hire, including deployment, support, and repairs. The Ascento App uses AI to analyze video, integrates with existing systems, offers encrypted communication, and generates detailed security reports.

What market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup in that market?
Labour shortages have affected large parts of the world and various industries. The security industry is also feeling the crunch, with many countries around the world facing a 52% staff shortage of security guards which means companies are struggling to fulfil contractual obligations or sign new business. Ascento’s mission is to support security providers with a robotic workforce to help them keep their contracts staffed by leveraging human security guards to become more efficient and effective thanks to collaboration.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
My co-founders and I developed a prototype during our studies, creating the second wheel-legged balancing robot globally. Our research generated viral robotics videos with over 1 million views. Initially aimed at creating a robot for various environments using simple hardware and AI, we adopted a wheel-leg design for speed and efficiency. After the videos, we received numerous requests for applications, notably in security due to industry labor shortages. We validated our idea by working in the field, confirming our robot could perform tasks like perimeter and parking control more economically and thoroughly than humans. We now offer our solution on an hourly basis to large premises alongside traditional security companies, allowing humans to focus on complex tasks while our robot handles repetitive ones.

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow and how do you think it will help you achieve your vision?
We have three goals during the Venture Leaders roadshow in Silicon Valley:

• Visiting security providers and setting up partnerships
• Meeting robotics companies
• Getting to know the Investor community in the Bay Area for future expansion

What are your team’s key achievements to date?
Firstly, on a product side, we deployed Ascento Guards to multiple sites in Switzerland patrolling over 5’000km, sustained all weather conditions including heavy snow, rain and extreme temperatures and with that proved the product readiness. Secondly, from a commercial perspective, we validated the value proposition with initial clients and paved the way for large framework agreements to scale deployments.

Is there a key principle or value that guides you as you build your company?
Speed, customer-centric, and laser focus.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
Persistence.

What is your favorite productivity hack or tool and why?

• Gamification, because working on something when it is fun, is just so rewarding.
• Focus time. You need a couple of solid hours every day to do deep work, otherwise you cannot move forward and progress.
• Honesty with oneself. At the end of the day it is a lot about how much energy you can put into something and to maximize this you have to understand yourself very well and think about this deeply. 

Tell us something people don't know about you.
I used to do a lot of rowing when I was in high school. This taught me a big lesson about hard work and persistence.

Do you recommend a podcast or a book you want to share with us?
Reading books is very important! "The Hard Thing About Hard Things" by Ben Horowitz.