Manex AI Closes €8 Million Seed Round to Enable Autonomous Factories

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Manex AI, an AI-driven software platform for industrial quality management and process steering, announced a €8M seed round to build the control layer for autonomous manufacturing. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and BlueYard Capital, with participation from Capmont Technology and the CDTM Venture Fund. Manex AI is the first provider of manufacturing optimization agents to enable autonomous factories. Manufacturing companies can future-proof their shop floors with Manex AI's software solution to compete in an ever-more challenging environment.

In just 18 months since its founding, Manex AI's software has earned the trust of industry-leading brands like BMW, Stellantis, Audi, Resrg Automotive, TDK Electronics, Still, BSH, and Henkel.

"The use of artificial intelligence supports the digital transformation of BMW Group production towards an intelligently connected factory – for example, we are using AI for quality control in vehicle assembly. In this way, we are optimizing our production processes and creating added value for our products and, ultimately, for our customers," said Armin Ebner, Plant Manager at BMW Group Plant Regensburg..

"With its technology, Manex AI tackles one of the major challenges that every manufacturer faces: end-to-end quality and process optimization from development through production to the customer," says Frederik Zohm, Chief Technology Officer at MAN.

Manex AI's first product platform, Qualitatio, integrates into every aspect of the manufacturing process, from order to production to getting the product in the customer's hands. This complete view of product data from start to finish enables Manex AI to help companies optimize for efficiency, quality, and operational excellence across manufacturing operations.

"It's the perfect storm for global manufacturing: Macroeconomic volatility is interfaced with labor shortages, making margins tighter by the day. Manex AI is the partner for global large-scale manufacturers to future-proof their operations and be at the forefront of adopting AI," said Alexander Schmitt, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. "Manex AI stands out by capturing complete manufacturing data from a range of existing software solutions, like traditional ERPs, MES and Quality Management Systems. Armed with AI trained on the most robust datasets of its kind, Manex AI is uniquely positioned to unlock massive manufacturing efficiencies on a global scale–essential in today's rapidly shifting market."

"We can all agree that the future of manufacturing is fully automated," said Ciarán O'Leary, General Partner, BlueYard Capital. "But it will not happen all at once, rather step-by-step through high ROI use cases where AI truly shines and has impact. Manex AI is ideally positioned through its high-impact optimization AI agents to become a core fabric layer technology for the future of manufacturing."

"It's great to see the team and our customers make such quick progress on ROI for our customers while working toward our vision of enabling autonomous factories. When we worked at BMW, we were actually looking for a solution like Qualitatio but decided to build it on our own when we couldn't find anything suitable," said Nathan Gruber, co-founder and CEO of Manex AI. "Lightspeed and BlueYard are the ideal partners for us to take our vision and product to a global scale. We are looking for the brightest talent and customers across all manufacturing verticals to work with us toward the vision of autonomous factories."

"With their help and the use of Qualitatio, we were able to more than halve our inspection volume - while at the same time improving delivery quality," said Johann Förster, director of quality at Resrg Automotive, a Manex AI early customer.