With the Exaas platform, Munich-based company builder Mantro and medium-sized company Oskar Frech, a tech supplier for die casting, aim to fill a gap in the manufacturing market. The new platform is intended to counteract the shortage of skilled workers and expertise in German industry by providing buyers and manufacturers of technical products with access to external manufacturing expertise. This should enable components to be manufactured more cost-effectively and efficiently.
The idea for Exaas was born about a year ago in collaboration with Oskar Frech, a medium-sized Swabian company with 800 employees and revenues of €125 million. Several pilot projects with industrial companies were already implemented in the summer of 2019.
With currently eight employees, the startup is now well positioned. The main advantage of such a collaborative project is that, thanks to the venture partners, the young company has access to a pool of around 70 employees for marketing, software development, and technology consulting.
From idea to implementation
But what exactly does the new platform aim to achieve? Since the manufacturing industry often focuses too much on the functional development of its products, there is often a lack of production expertise to optimize components for the specific manufacturing process. The digital platform Exaas — the name stands for "Expertise-as-a-Service" — aims to offer a solution precisely for this, thus reducing costs and effort. Using a simple search function, manufacturers or buyers can find technical experts such as mechanical engineering companies, tool or parts manufacturers, as well as consultants and industry-related research institutes.
Exaas CEO Tobias Schneider says:
"Here in Germany and neighboring countries, we have an enormous wealth of knowledge when it comes to manufacturing expertise. We have a unique opportunity to make this knowledge accessible and make 'Made in Europe' the technology brand of the coming decades."
How Exaas wants to stand out from the competition
The new expert network includes existing companies instead of freelancers. According to CEO Tobias Schneider, Exaas can provide support from the conception of the component idea through design, documentation, procurement, and manufacturing. Unlike engineering service providers and freelancer platforms, the new platform aims to bring lost manufacturing knowledge back into departments. "Small" solution packages, such as three-hour interactive web sessions for a manufacturability analysis of a component, can also be booked. However, if you currently visit the startup's website, the search process looks like this: You enter your contact details and describe what you need support with.
Currently, Exaas is still in the evaluation phase, in which the team wants to find out what exactly the customers need. Based on the results of current consulting projects with pilot clients, the startup aims to better understand the purchasing processes for consulting services in order to optimize the digital solution accordingly.
In addition to Mantro, other providers in Munich also operate the Companybuilder concept, such as Hyve Recently, the focus has been on collaborations with large corporations such as Audi and Osram, from which the Munich mobility startups Mobiko and the Proptech startup Visn were created.
