The Munich-based industrial startup Manex AI has completed a seed financing round of 8 million euros. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Blueyard Capital are leading the round. Additional investors include Capmont Technology and CDTM Venture Fund.
Manex AI develops Manufacturing Optimization Agents – AI-powered software solutions for automated factories. The platform targets manufacturing companies and aims to provide a central control layer for autonomous manufacturing. With the fresh funding, the startup plans to further develop its solution and market it globally.
“Manex AI addresses one of the major challenges every manufacturing operation faces with its technology: continuous quality and process optimization from development through production to the customer,”
says Frederik Zohm, Chief Technology Officer at MAN.
The startup, formerly known as Datagon AI, has gained numerous industry leaders as customers within just 18 months of its founding. These include BMW, Stellantis, Audi, Resrg Automotive, TDK Electronics, Still, BSH, and Henkel.
Manex AI stands for the future of manufacturing
Manex AI’s core product is the Qualitatio platform, which covers all production steps of a company – from order to delivery. The solution integrates existing software such as ERP, MES, and quality management systems. The AI models have been trained on comprehensive datasets to improve quality and efficiency across the entire value chain.
“This is a huge opportunity for global manufacturing: macroeconomic volatility meets a shortage of skilled workers, which means margins are getting tighter. Manex AI is the right partner for global large-scale manufacturers to make their operations future-proof and take a leading role in AI implementation,”
explains Alexander Schmitt, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Ciarán O’Leary from Blueyard Capital also sees enormous potential:
“We all agree that the future of manufacturing is fully automated. But it won’t all happen at once; rather, it will happen gradually through high-ROI use cases where AI truly shines and shows impact. With its highly effective AI agents for optimization, Manex AI is ideally positioned to become a core technology for the future of manufacturing.”
For Manex CEO Nathan Gruber, the development of Qualitatio is a logical step based on personal experience:
“When we worked at BMW, we were actually looking for a solution like Qualitatio and decided to develop it ourselves when we couldn’t find anything suitable. Lightspeed and Blueyard are the ideal partners for us to take our vision and product to a global level. We’re looking for the best talent and customers from all areas of manufacturing to work with us on the vision of autonomous factories.”
