EthonAI raises $16.5m Series A to make sense out of manufacturing’s data deluge with AI
QUICK TAKE
- Swiss startup EthonAI raises a $16.5m (CHF 15m) Series A, led by Index Ventures, to help manufacturers make sense out of billions of data points – in sectors from consumer goods to electronics.
- Factories are yet to reap the rewards of their data-trove from the explosion of sensors, robots and more. But now, AI is bringing manufacturing to an inflection point where it can extract meaning from the vast swathes of data produced every day and cut down on the industry’s massive waste problem.
- EthonAI launches the Manufacturing Analytics System (MAS) to transform manufacturing processes with AI-powered insights and places humans in the loop to make critical decisions that can increase productivity by 20–50%.
- EthonAI already counts chocolate-maker Lindt & Sprüngli and multinationals like Siemens Smart Infrastructure among its customers, operating across the US and Europe; new funding will help EthonAI expand its platform for enterprise clients.
INDEX PERSPECTIVE
By Katharina Wilhelm, Partner at Index
Factories have long been the crucibles of innovation – and controversy. From the Luddite revolts among textile workers in the 19th century to the automation anxieties of today, factories are both testing grounds and battlegrounds for the relationships that new technologies can and should have with human workers.
Companies such as EthonAI point the way towards a positive future in which AI isn’t a replacement for human ingenuity, but a tool to amplify it. More and more factories have more and more unstructured data amassed through sensors, but few do anything with it. EthonAI turns these data lakes into worker superpowers, identifying patterns, anomalies and root causes that would otherwise escape notice. Imagine a food scientist at Lindt & Sprüngli, understanding precisely how to offset a change in air temperature to preserve the quality of Lindor truffles. Or a Siemens engineer, alerted to an issue in a production line for fire retardants before it causes downtime. This is the power of EthonAI – it's not about replacing experts, but about giving them a tool to see things they couldn't see before.
The potential benefits are immense. By optimizing processes, predicting maintenance needs and catching quality issues early, EthonAI can help factories boost efficiency, reduce waste and improve product quality. Beware, though – those who grasp the power of AI may find themselves doing the most satisfying work of their careers.
THE DETAILS
EthonAI, a pioneer of AI-powered manufacturing analytics, today announced its $16.5m (CHF 15m) Series A funding – led by Index Ventures, with existing investors General Catalyst, Earlybird, and Founderful participating.
While other industries pounced on data analytics early and never looked back, manufacturing has lagged behind. Now, across products as diverse as chocolate, watches, automotive parts and consumer electronics, EthonAI is powering data-driven factories and changing the whole paradigm of manufacturing. 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%.
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 realized the value of their research and decided to make their technology available to the broader industry.
Ethon AI cofounders: Julian Senoner (left), Bernhard Kratzwald (right)
AI can tackle global waste problem at critical juncture in manufacturing
In procurement, logistics and finance, companies have been optimizing 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 gap between the reality and the potential for 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.
‘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,’ Senoner says. ‘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 center. That’s exactly where EthonAI is positioned.’
EthonAI launches Manufacturing Analytics System (MAS) to unlock operational excellence at scale
To address these problems, EthonAI has created an entirely new category of software: the Manufacturing Analytics System (MAS). This multi-layered platform has been developed based on years of research, and 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, analyzes the origins of any problems, and predicts what can be done to resolve them.
‘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, the partner at Index Ventures who led the investment. ‘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
EthonAI has a diverse customer base of Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders across the globe – including Siemens Smart Infrastructure and Lindt & Sprüngli.
Industry giant Siemens was an early adopter of EthonAI and has been a customer since the company’s foundation. For example, in the factory in Zug, Switzerland, EthonAI’s MAS is being used with a clear focus on quality control and value stream analysis. ‘Due to the fragmentation of manufacturing software solutions, we are facing a lack of standardization between factories.’ Alexander Dierolf, Head of Data Intelligence and Automation at Siemens Smart Infrastructure, comments. ‘With EthonAI we are able to replace single solutions with a modern suite of interoperable tools to specifically improve our product’s quality as well as throughput.’ Siemens will be rolling out EthonAI to further factories across Europe and the US.
For Lindt, creating the perfect Lindor truffle involves multiple interlocking dependencies, such as raw material quality, humidity, temperature, and variations in machine age and local factory infrastructure. To maintain quality while shipping billions of Lindor truffles every year, Lindt relies on EthonAI’s causal AI tools to model the relationship between different physical processes and the quality of the resulting truffle, and to make recommendations for improvement.
EthonAI’s core AI technology has been developed internally by its employees whose prior career experience includes Meta, Google, ETH Zurich, ABB and Siemens. Now, the team will focus on deploying funds to build out its platform capabilities and enhance its enterprise offering to meet the demands of customers who are already scaling the MAS across multiple factories.
Published — May 30, 2024
