LoopX, a Sudbury and Toronto-based developer of Physical AI for mining, has raised C$4.05M in Seed funding. The company builds machine intelligence that fuses thermal vision, LiDAR, and RF to give mining equipment perception and decision-making in dust, glare, and total darkness. The capital will support team expansion in applied AI engineering, customer success, and go-to-market.
Physical AI Targets Underground Gaps
The timing aligns with regulatory pressure on collision avoidance and the expansion of deeper underground operations where GPS fails. sensmore raised $7.3M Series A in 2025. Tage I-Driver secured ~$98.4M in Series D funding in 2026. LoopX's multi-sensor approach addresses conditions where camera and RF-only systems lose reliability.
Harsh Conditions Expose Sensor Limits
Underground mines create environments where visibility drops to zero and terrain shifts constantly. Traditional proximity tags and GPS-based systems generate frequent false alarms or fail entirely. Mines face rising mandates for EMESRT Level 9 collision avoidance, yet current solutions struggle with dust, darkness, and around-corner detection.
Multi-Sensor Fusion Delivers Level 9 Readiness
LoopX's Collision Avoidance System unifies Vision AI, LiDAR, and RF into a single 360° platform that triggers proactive warnings and automatic intervention. LoadSight adds 3D LiDAR payload measurement and cycle analytics. BoomGuard applies the same intelligence to jumbo drills and bolters. The systems run fully on edge computers with no underground connectivity required.
As CEO Dr. Chao Yu noted:
"Digital AI learns from information on the internet. Physical AI learns from interacting with the real world. Digital AI can tolerate an occasional hallucination. Physical AI cannot."
Mission and Strategic Capital Combine
BDC Seed Venture Fund led the round alongside Orion Industrial Ventures, with participation from Hatch. The investor mix signals both Canadian development bank support and deep mining sector expertise. Orion's Mark Frayman previously led BHP Ventures; Hatch brings global engineering reach.
Autonomous Equipment Market Accelerates
The autonomous mining equipment market is projected to grow from $4.71B in 2026 to $11.06B by 2034. The broader AI agents market is expected to expand from $10.9B in 2026 to $182.9B by 2033. Demand stems from safety mandates, labor shortages, and electrification trends that render older detection methods obsolete. Competitors such as Hexagon Mining and ASI Mining focus primarily on surface operations or full autonomy kits.
Ex-GM Leader Brings Autonomy Experience
Founder and CEO Dr. Chao Yu spent eight years at General Motors developing autonomous driving and electrification technologies. The company originated from University of Waterloo autonomous vehicle research. Board members include Mark Frayman of Orion and Mark Deziel of Hatch.
Scaling Engineering and Commercial Teams
With systems already deployed at eight active mine sites including Vale Base Metals, Agnico Eagle, and BHP, LoopX opened a new Toronto office and is hiring for Head of Finance & Operations, Head of Commercial, and multiple engineering roles. The company is advancing a next-generation Vision-Language-Action model for supervised autonomy.