Breaking the Bottleneck | Issue 01
[02/22] Introducing Your New Monthly Manufacturing Tech Update
Breaking the Bottleneck is a monthly newsletter recapping the past month in manufacturing with perspectives, news, recent funding, and a startup database.
Let’s Get Started ⚡
A bit about myself first. I’m Aditya Raghupathy and I recently moved to San Francisco, to join Schematic Ventures, having previously spent 4 years at Deloitte working in their smart manufacturing group. Here I was fortunate enough to experience everything from connecting to PLCs and OT systems to driving adoption across the factory floor. I'm excited to see these two worlds collide as the reshoring of American Supply Chains sits squarely in the zeitgeist of our post-COVID world.
I’ve created this newsletter to (not just clutter your inbox) document and support the rise of Manufacturing Tech investing. Going forward, I plan to include a monthly update of Manufacturing Tech investments, interviews with investors or entrepreneurs, summaries of key trends and topics within the space, things I’ve enjoyed reading, and a database consisting of all the manufacturing tech startups I come across. Feel free to reach out with ideas for future content on Twitter or LinkedIn. I am excited to get going!
Manufacturing News and Interesting Reads 🏭
Intel Building “Largest Silicon Manufacturing Location on Planet” - The plant could eventually expand to 2,000 acres with eight fabs with Pat Gelsinger describing the new site as becoming “the Silicon Heartland.”
GM Spending $7 Billion on EV Manufacturing - The plant in Michigan, will create 4,000 jobs and significantly increase G.M.’s capacity to build electric vehicles in the United States. This coincides with the existing construction of plants in Ohio and Tennessee and the retooling of their Detroit plant.
US Factory Activity Falls Short - The Institute for Supply Management’s gauge of December factory activity fell to 58.7, the lowest level since January 2021, from 61.1 in the prior month.
Companies Lean on Automation Tech Amid Hiring Crunch - Companies are assessing where automation technology can knock off redundant tasks with 1/3 of C-suite executives turning to automation, according to West Monroe's Quarterly Executive Poll.
The Industrial Metaverse - Discusses how the metaverse will take shape over the years to come and how the convergence of simulation and reality will impact industries such as architecture, engineering, construction, automotive, transportation, and manufacturing.
Digital Twins in Manufacturing - MIT Technology Review’s report covering how simulations and digital twins can ease the complex development process and push the physical construction of prototypes further down the design pipeline.
KPMG Global Manufacturing Prospects 2022 - KPMG’s report polled CEOs of large manufacturers in 11 countries to find out what is top of mind as they prepare for the challenges that emerge in 2022.
Monthly Manufacturing Deals💰
Allspice - A startup focused on building a collaboration tool for hardware engineering akin to GitHub
$3.2 million [Seed] - Led by Bowery Capital and Root Ventures and joined by Flybridge
Apprentice - A startup developing manufacturing execution systems and laboratory execution systems for life sciences
$100 million [Series C] - Led by Alkeon Capital Management and joined by Silverton Partners, Insight Partners, Pacific Western Bank, and Colorcon Ventures
CausalAI - A startup developing a no-code causal inference technology and predictive AI for industrials
$45 million [Series B] - Led by Dorilton Ventures and Molten Ventures and joined by Generation Ventures and IQ Capital
Formant - A startup allowing companies to monitor robot fleets, receive alerts, and embark on root cause analyses for robots
$18 million [Series A] - Led by SignalFire and joined by Hillsven, Pelion, Goodyear Ventures, Thursday Ventures, Ericsson, Picus Capital, and Holman Strategic Ventures
Foxglove - A startup building an open-source development platform including visualization and debugging tool for robotics
$3.7 million [Seed] - Led by Amplify Partners and joined by Boost VC, and Pathbreaker Ventures
Groyyo - A startup providing a marketplace for transparent, compliant, quality manufacturers to cater to low minimum order sizes and fast turnaround times
$4.6 million [Seed] - Led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) and joined by Sparrow Capital and Stride Ventures
Heaten - A startup focused on heavy industry decarbonization through the development of a high-temperature heat pump for industrial use
€6 million [Seed] - Led by Azolla Ventures and joined by Shell Ventures and Nysnø Climate Investments
Moglix - A startup operating a B2B industrial marketplace with a supply chain network of 16,000 suppliers, 40 warehouses, and logistics infrastructure
$250 million [Series F] - Led by Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global and joined by Ward Ferry
Operations1 - A startup enabling manufacturers to analyze and optimize work and processes, freeing up teams to focus on more complex and innovative activities
$12.5 million [Series A] - Led by OpenOcean
Robotic Research - A startup developing autonomous driving technology for commercial truck, bus, drayage, and logistics vehicles
$228 million [Series A] - Led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Enlightenment Capital and joined by Crescent Cove Advisors
SparkCognition - A startup helping industrial companies to predict future outcomes, optimize processes, extend the lifespan of assets and prevent cyber-attacks
$123 million [Series D] - Led by March Capital and joined by Doha VC, B. Riley VC, AEI Horizon X, and Temasek
StrongArm Technologies - A startup developing wearable technology to drive workforce optimization and provide worker feedback related to safety, risk management, and more for industrial companies
$50 million [Series B] - Led by Drive Capital
Timeseer.ai - A startup that helps enterprises maintain the accuracy and health of their time-series databases using 30+ metrics
$6 million [Seed] - Led By Crane Venture Partners and joined by Smartfin Capital, Fortino Capital, LRM, and Innovation Fund
Vanti Analytics - A startup enabling manufacturing teams to build and deploy predictive models for use cases in semiconductors, automotive, food, energy, and consumer goods
$16 million [Series A] - Led by Insight Partners and joined by True Ventures and MoreVC
Wandelbots - A startup removing the barrier to program robots with easy-to-use software interfaces, a no-code approach, and hardware-agnostic software platform
$84 million [Series C] - Led by Insight Partners and joined by 83North, Microsoft, Next47, Paua, Atlantic Labs, Haniel and EQT
Xage - A startup focused on ensuring the security of critical industrial infrastructure by providing zero trust protection that spans operations, IT, and the cloud
$30 million [Series B] - Led by Piva and joined by Momenta, March Capital, and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures
Events Next Month 📅
5G Monetization Forum on February 15 [Virtual] will cover topics such as unlocking new revenue streams, 5G adoption and generating ROI from 5G investments.
Food Processing Expo on February 16 in Sacramento, CA will bring together thousands of food processing vendors, suppliers, and more.
AmCon Design & Contract Manufacturing Expo on February 21-22 in Seattle, WA will include vendors and companies from prototypes to production parts.
Startup Database 💾
Below is a database of industrial and manufacturing startups. I will continue to update the list monthly with the newsletter! Please feel free to reach out if I missed anything.
⚙ Seen any interesting industrial startups recently?
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