After a long break we are back! Breaking the Bottleneck is a monthly newsletter with perspectives, interviews, news, recent funding announcements, and a manufacturing startup database.
Production Perspectives - IMTS Recap 💭🎙️
Just over a month on from IMTS, I am still amazed by the incredible experience I had in Chicago. More than 85,000 registrants, 1.2 million square feet, 4,000 booths, and roughly 10 billion dollars in sales were conducted at this year’s conference. Being my first, I was amazed by the sheer depth and breadth the conference had to offer across tooling, additive manufacturing, metalworking, manufacturing software, and much more. Furthermore, the conference had a palpable energy, unlike any other conference I had witnessed. Across my conversations with executives at major software companies, venture capitalists, industry 4.0 veterans, early-stage startups, additive manufacturers, and machine shop CEOs the energy around domestic manufacturing was unmatched. Some core themes across the conference that I saw further entrench themselves included:
An increased excitement around new additive manufacturing techniques to improve R&D, prototyping, and production including companies such as Meltio, a micro 3D printing technology, and Desktop Metal’s new Fabriq printer.
A focus on digital connectivity from architecture, to design, and finally production, saw significant representation from ERP, MES, and smart manufacturing solutions including companies such as Fulcrum, Amper, and Lumafield.
Machine shops' focus and affinity for automation to help solve labor issues and personnel utilization problems included significant excitement around machine tending cobots, automated data capture, metrology, and CMMS solutions from companies such as Hexagon, Plus One Robotics, and Rapid Robotics.
Amplified interest in hardware/software integration as metalworking/tooling companies look to new technologies such as connected factory applications, augmented reality, or additive technologies, to offer next-gen control of machines and more granular data visibility.
All in all, this year’s IMTS was an incredible experience and one that I hope to attend for years to come!
Manufacturing Startup Database 🏭
A total of 284 manufacturing companies, with the following breakdown across categories. Check it out here!
3D Printing / Additive / Mfg-as-a-Service [39]
Cybersecurity and Networks [18]
Industrial AI/ML [63]
Digital Twin and Spatial [6]
Robotics and Drones [44]
Predictive Maintenance [16]
IIoT and Middleware [26]
Workforce and Wearables [25]
Energy and Sustainability [6]
Manufacturing and Transactional Systems [42]
Feel free to shoot me a note if there are any others that I have missed!
📧 If you were forwarded this and found it interesting, please sign up or share! If you know any founders, executives, or experts that are building in the space, I would love to speak with them at aditya@schematicventures.com!