Droidrun has secured €2.1 million in pre-seed funding to address what many consider the last significant gap in artificial intelligence automation: reliable control of mobile applications. The Berlin-based startup announced the funding round, led by Merantix Capital with participation from SixtyDegree Capital, closed in July 2025.
The company tackles a technical challenge that has frustrated developers across the industry. Whilst AI agents have successfully automated desktop and web-based workflows, mobile platforms have remained largely inaccessible due to their closed architecture. Traditional automation tools struggle with mobile applications because they lack the standardised interfaces found on web platforms.
Technical Innovation Behind Mobile Control
Droidrun’s approach differs fundamentally from existing solutions. Rather than attempting to interpret mobile screens visually through screenshot analysis—a method prone to failures when applications update their interfaces—the platform converts mobile user interfaces into structured text data that large language models can process directly.
“We flipped it completely. Instead of teaching AI to interpret mobile screens visually, we convert mobile interfaces into structured text that large language models already understand,” explained Christian Ninstel, the company’s chief executive.
This methodology delivers execution speeds three times faster than conventional approaches whilst significantly reducing computational requirements. The solution earned the top position on the AndroidWorld benchmark, demonstrating its effectiveness in production environments where vision-based alternatives frequently fail.
Proven Team with Previous Success
The startup’s four co-founders bring a track record of collaboration from two previous ventures. Ninstel leads strategy and market development in his third entrepreneurial venture. Chief Technical Officer Niels Schmidt designed the core automation technology, drawing from extensive experience in artificial intelligence and blockchain development.
Chief Product Officer Nikolai Dück previously built an AI chatbot platform seven years ago that Fortune 50 companies continue to utilize today. Peter Lächner contributes enterprise deployment expertise gained from his tenure at Bosch, where he managed international teams.
The team’s motivation emerged from their own technical frustrations. We needed AI agents to extract product insights from viral TikTok videos for our previous startup
, Ninstel recalled, describing how existing automation solutions failed consistently when social media platforms updated their interfaces.
Market Validation and Community Response
Developer interest validated Droidrun’s market assessment immediately upon launch. More than 900 developers registered within the first 24 hours, and the platform accumulated over 3,300 GitHub stars within ten weeks. The rapid adoption indicates widespread developer demand for reliable mobile automation capabilities.
Notable angel investors in the funding round include Peter Sarlin from Silo AI, recently acquired by AMD, and Felix Jahn, founder of McMakler. Their participation reflects confidence in Droidrun’s technical approach and market opportunity.
Applications and Future Development
Early adopters employ Droidrun for data extraction from mobile-exclusive platforms, business workflow automation, robotic process automation extension to mobile devices, quality assurance testing, and AI agent development requiring mobile execution capabilities.
The company plans to accelerate development of its cloud platform, enabling enterprise deployment of mobile AI agents at scale whilst maintaining its open-source framework. Ninstel envisions a future where automated workflows exceed human interactions on mobile devices.
Within a few years, automated workflows will outnumber human interactions on mobile devices
, he predicted, describing scenarios where users could instruct AI agents to handle complex multi-application tasks through simple natural language commands.
This transformation could fundamentally alter mobile interface design, potentially leading to adaptive user interfaces or entirely new operating systems designed primarily for AI agent interaction rather than human touch input.