AI Agents Command Mobile Phones After €2.1M Funding Boost
Droidrun Secures Capital to Revolutionize Mobile Interaction with Natural Language
Berlin-based Droidrun has secured €2.1 million in pre-seed funding to propel its AI framework, which allows agents to control mobile devices and apps using natural language. This development promises to usher in an era where automated workflows surpass manual app navigation.
Bridging Intent and Action
The company is building the essential infrastructure to enable AI agents to seamlessly access mobile systems. This will allow complex tasks, like booking a business trip by checking flights and hotels across multiple apps, to be handled entirely by AI without user intervention.
“Everyone is building AI agents for desktop and browsers. But mobile, where most people actually spend their time, was completely ignored. We didn’t just build another mobile automation tool. We built the first AI agent that works reliably on mobile apps.”
—Christian Ninstel, Co-Founder and CEO of Droidrun
Rapid Growth and Technical Innovation
Launched just ten weeks prior to the announcement, Droidrun experienced immediate viral success. Over 900 developers registered for the framework within 24 hours, and the project garnered more than 3,300 GitHub stars, establishing it as the fastest-growing mobile agent project. The open-source framework is being integrated into major AI platforms, empowering developers to create mobile-capable agents.
The Droidrun team developed their solution after finding existing mobile automation tools unreliable for production use at their previous startup. Their approach converts mobile interfaces into structured text, which large language models (LLMs) can process directly, enabling precise, fast, and deterministic app control.
Investor Confidence and Future Vision
The funding round was led by Merantix Capital, with contributions from SixtyDegree Capital and notable angel investors from the open-source and AI sectors, including Peter Sarlin, Philipp Langnickel, Mandeep Singh, and Felix Jahn.
“AI agents are rapidly advancing, mobile remains the dominant user interface, and the need for automation is accelerating. The problem: there is no sufficient existing solution for true Agentic AI use on mobile. Until now. I’ve been amazed by Droidrun’s exceptional speed and execution capabilities. I’m excited to see this stellar team build the essential infrastructure for the next generation of AI-powered mobile experiences.”
—Adrian Locher, Co-Founder and General Partner at Merantix Capital
Droidrun’s technology is already being utilized by early adopters for data extraction from mobile-only platforms, automating critical mobile workflows, extending Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to mobile, and supporting QA agents. By 2023, mobile devices accounted for 56% of all global website traffic, highlighting the critical importance of mobile-first AI solutions (DataReportal, 2023).
Strategic Use of Funds
The newly acquired capital will be used to accelerate the development of Droidrun’s cloud platform, enabling enterprises to deploy mobile AI agents at scale. Simultaneously, the company will maintain its commitment to the open-source framework that has fostered significant community engagement.
