EthonAI, a pioneer of AI-powered manufacturing analytics, today announced its €15.3 million Series A funding.

Launching today, its Manufacturing Analytics System (MAS) leverages AI to give engineers and managers a ‘sixth sense’ about what’s happening on the factory floor – helping them to spot defects, identify process inefficiencies, improve quality and reduce waste by as much as 50 per cent.

EthonAI was co-founded by Julian Senoner (CEO) and Bernhard Kratzwald (CTO) in 2021. Both completed their PhDs at ETH Zurich, where they studied manufacturing applications of AI at industry leaders such as Siemens and Aker Solutions. Together with Torbjørn Netland, a renowned ETH professor of production management, they realised the value of their research and decided to make their technology available to the broader industry.

Tacking the waste problem in manufacturing

In procurement, logistics and finance, companies have been optimising based on data for the last 10 years. Yet manufacturing lags behind – even as the amount of data produced by factories has ballooned with the rise of sensor technology. 

This is despite the fact this data trove represents a huge commercial opportunity for manufacturers, who are under increasing pressure at a time of global supply chain instability.

At the same time, it’s estimated that every fifth dollar spent in manufacturing goes to waste. The consequences are even greater for producers’ ‘top line’ because failing to deliver sufficient quantities of high-quality products often leads manufacturers to lose their customers, not just their profits. 

By supporting and empowering engineers and managers to make better, data-driven decisions, EthonAI is a transformative way to grow margins and improve customer satisfaction.

According to  Julian Senoner , CEO of EthonAI: 

“‘Manufacturing is at a critical juncture, and companies that fail to adapt with AI risk falling behind. Factories are producing mountains of data and AI is the key to unlocking insights to drive operational excellence,

Global supply chains are trembling, and the EU and US are seeking to rebuild manufacturing capabilities. We’re in the throes of a global rethinking of how manufacturing is done – with digitalization, data and AI at the centre. That’s exactly where EthonAI is positioned.”

Introducing the Manufacturing Analytics System (MAS)

To address these problems, EthonAI has created an entirely new category of software: the Manufacturing Analytics System (MAS). This multi-layered platform sits on top of all existing factory data sources, such as sensor measurements, order information, and computer vision images. 

Like a set of AI-driven power tools that augments the abilities of factory managers and engineers, the MAS creates a real-time picture of what’s happening, analyses the origins of any problems, and predicts what can be done to resolve them.

Index Ventures led the funding with existing investors General Catalyst, Earlybird, and Founderful participating.

“Factories have truly come “online” in the last few years, with the growth of sensors to measure everything from the temperature of a boiler to the vibration of a motor,§ says Katharina Wilhelm,  partner at Index Ventures.

“But data is only valuable if you can digest it, make sense of it, and use it to drive decisions.

That’s where EthonAI comes in – helping you to make sense of the data and quickly spot problems, point to bottlenecks and drive operational excellence overall. It turns the paradigm of manufacturing from a piecemeal and reactive one into an intelligent and proactive one.”

EthonAI will deploy new funding to accelerate enterprise motion and add new AI capabilities.

Lead image: Ethon AI’s Bernhard Kratzwald and Julian Senoner. Photo: uncredited.