December 21, 2022
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The manufacturing sector is set to be revolutionized by startups focused on the industrial sector, especially those that are creating new and improved automation for this sector.
Across the world, the automation market accounted for $196.6 billion in 2021. By 2030, the growth of this market will see it quadruple its current size, hitting $412.8 billion.
Automation is not the only thriving aspect of the industrial startups sector - during 2022, approximately 22% of startups and scaleups in the industrial sector were innovating in the space of artificial intelligence.
With all this unlocked potential, in this list, 20 automotive startups are identified that raised venture capital funding in 2022 and have the potential to change how the industrial sector operates at a fundamental level.
Headquarters: Hollister, California, United States
Founders: Val Miftakhov
Year founded: 2017
Latest funding: $30,000,000 (Series B)
Total funding: $140,000,000
Investors: Elemental Excelerator, Alumni Ventures, SYSTEMIQ, International Airlines Group (IAG), Horizons Ventures
What they do: ZeroAvia is a British and American aviation company. ZeroAvia developed a vision to serve as a responsible steward of the environment by bringing hydrogen-powered aircraft to the market. The hydrogen-electric powertrain technology vastly reduces carbon emissions and reduces noise, all while lowering fuel and maintenance costs for airlines.
Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Founders: Aaron Mandell, Carlos Araque, Matthew Houde, Paul Woskov
Year founded: 2018
Latest funding: $12,000,000 (Series A)
Total funding: $70,000,000
Investors: Collaborative Fund, Nabors, 8090 Partners, Hostplus, Prelude Ventures
What they do: Quaise is an energy company that is developing and commercializing novel millimeter-wave drilling systems to harness geothermal energy around the globe, overcoming the geographic constraints limiting this energy source today.
Headquarters: St Louis, Missouri, United States
Founders: Dennis Plummer, Jerry Steiner, Tim Ulmasov
Year founded: 2013
Latest funding: $26,000,000 (Series C)
Total funding: $45,900,000
Investors: Bayer, BioGenerator, Chevron, The Yield Lab, Cultivation Capital
What they do: CoverCress is a biotechnology company that focuses on research and development of renewable fuel and livestock feed. It specializes in producing an oilseed crop for food, bioenergy, and cattle feed.
Headquarters: Boulder, Colorado, United States
Founders: Caroline Alden, Gregory Rieker, Robbie Wright, Sean Coburn
Year founded: 2017
Latest funding: $22,000,000 (Series A)
Total funding: $22,000,000
Investors: ProFrac Services, Williams, White Deer Energy, Buff Gold Ventures
What they do: LongPath Technologies is an oil and gas monitoring service company that provides laser-based natural gas infrastructure monitoring systems. Its combination of laser engineering and atmospheric science enables them to turn unique ideas into reliable solutions.
Headquarters: Vancouver, Washington, United States
Founders: Andrew Chrostowski, Andy Lowery, Brian Hamilton, Chris Parkinson, Kenneth Lustig, Sanjay Jhawar
Year founded: 2016
Latest funding: $25,000,000 (Series C)
Total funding: $126,800,000
Investors: JP Morgan Chase, Fortive, Qualcomm Ventures, Kopin, Foundry Group
What they do: RealWear® is the world’s leading provider of assisted reality wearable solutions that engage, empower, and elevate the modern frontline industrial worker to perform work tasks more safely, and with increased efficiency and precision. RealWear gives these workers real-time access to information and expertise, while keeping their hands and field of view free for work.
Headquarters: Taramani, Tamil Nadu, India
Founders: Bhavesh Narayani, Moinak Banerjee
Year founded: 2018
Latest funding: $552,177 (Seed)
Total funding: $552,177
Investors: 8X Ventures, Sophonos Investment, Lister Ventures, Chetan Mehra
What they do: Solinas solves problems of water leakage and eliminates manual scavenging. Their products are being designed for Indian challenges with products like short-range and long-range pipeline inspection and robotic cleaning of septic tanks. They provide internal condition assessment and defect detection in pipelines, identifying and analysing leaks, corrosion, sediments, and dents in critical pipeline infrastructure using NDT techniques.
Headquarters: London, England, United Kingdom
Founders: Chris Emery, Theo Saville
Year founded: 2015
Latest funding: $45,000,000 (Series B)
Total funding: $77,781,174
Investors: Entrepreneur First, Autodesk, Atomico, Acequia Capital (AceCap), Innovate UK
What they do: CloudNC develops advanced software that enables factories to autonomously manufacture precision parts. Precision manufacturing is fundamental to every aspect of modern life - without it, there are no cars, aircraft, or ships. In the modern world, virtually everything requires precision parts. CloudNC's mission is to automate manufacturing and create a clean and sustainable industrial revolution that accelerates humanity. They’re building the autonomous factories of the future to make manufacturing 10x more efficient, sustainable and faster than anything today. They’re reimagining manufacturing, making it more efficient and productive than ever before, and opening a unique opportunity for investors to transform a $150bn industry. CloudNC elevates an entire industry and put manufacturing back at the cutting edge.
Headquarters: Seattle, Washington, United States
Founders: Adam Greenberg
Year founded: 2013
Latest funding: $24,000,000 (Series B)
Total funding: $45,706,954
Investors: Village Capital, S2G Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, Fuel Capital, Initialized Capital
What they do: IUNU is an industrial computer vision company that connects plants, facilities, and people through a single interface. IUNU’s most advanced crop insurance tool, Luna, turns commercial greenhouses into precise, predictable, demand-based manufacturers.
Headquarters: Burlington, Massachusetts, United States
Founders: A. John Hart, Martin C. Feldmann
Year founded: 2015
Latest funding: $250,000,000 (Series C)
Total funding: $355,000,000
Investors: Eclipse Ventures, Industry Ventures, Fontinalis Partners, Boston Seed Capital, Standard Investments
What they do: VulcanForms enables critical industries to innovate, grow, and deliver sustainable impact. The company builds and operates an advanced digital manufacturing infrastructure.
Headquarters: Foster City, California, United States
Founders: Jim Castelaz
Year founded: 2009
Latest funding: $30,000,000 (Series C)
Total funding: $175,597,325
Investors: Blackhorn Ventures, Crescent Cove Advisors, 3Lines, Jason Haider, GMAG Holdings Inc.
What they do: Motiv Power Systems delivers medium-duty class 4-6 commercial battery-electric trucks and buses, along with charging infrastructure and guidance for deploying commercial fleets. Specializing in step vans, shuttle buses, and box trucks, Motiv is a leading provider of daily-use zero-emission vehicles for moving people and moving goods that are the “backbone of urban commerce” with 98% uptime and intense customer-driven focus. The company’s solutions not only offer fleets up to 85% operations and maintenance cost savings but also provide operators and riders a healthier and more comfortable experience without polluting the communities they serve.
Headquarters: Durham, North Carolina, United States
Founders: Ginger Krieg Dosier, Michael Dosier
Year founded: 2012
Latest funding: $65,000,000 (Series C)
Total funding: $94,953,691
Investors: National Science Foundation, Novo Holdings, Celesta Capital, 2150, Hartree Partners
What they do: Biomason is a developer of a building materials technology to produce biological cement-based building materials alternatives. Its bio cement production combines natural microorganisms and chemical processes to develop masonry materials at room temperature, which helps replace traditional clay and concrete, and the high energy consumption associated with standard manufacturing them, enabling builders to acquire alternative building materials that are produced carbon-free. Since 2012, the company has used microorganisms to grow sustainable, structural biocement® in ambient temperatures, harnessing the power of biotechnology to reinvent traditional cement and offer a planet-friendly alternative. Biocement will eliminate 25% of the concrete industry’s global carbon emissions by 2030. Biomason bio cement is in use in projects throughout the US and Europe, and bioLITH precast tile products are commercially available.
Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
Founders: Jagadish Gattu, Vamsi Yalamanchili
Year founded: 2019
Latest funding: $3,500,000 (Seed)
Total funding: $5,000,000
Investors: Venture Catalysts, Emergent Ventures, YourNest Venture Capital, AISprouts, Sharad Sanghi
What they do: UptimeAI is an artificial intelligence-based predictive maintenance software provider for companies in heavy industries.
Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
Founders: Alex Senemar, Anurag Kanungo, Harishma Dayanidhi, Troy Carlson
Year founded: 2020
Latest funding: $15,000,000 (Series A)
Total funding: $18,000,000
Investors: Eclipse Ventures, MTech Capital, World Innovation Lab (WiL)
What they do: Voxel uses computer vision and AI to enable security cameras to automatically identify hazards and high-risk activities in real-time, keeping people safe and driving operational efficiencies. Voxel’s technology targets the key drivers for workers’ compensation, general liability, and property costs while providing full site visibility.
Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Founders: Jack Oslan, Russell Varone
Year founded: 2018
Latest funding: $50,000,000 (Series A)
Total funding: $58,000,000
Investors: Alumni Ventures, Gaingels, Bossanova Investimentos, Prime Movers Lab, Calm Ventures
What they do: Diamond Age is automating new home construction for the production housing industry. Our Robotics-as-a-Service system combines 3D printing, mechatronics, and robotics to unlock the industry's enormous growth potential by backfilling the massive labor shortage and driving construction cycle times down from 9 months to 30 days.
Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
Founders: Ciarán O'Mara, Dan Hobbs
Year founded: 2021
Latest funding: $17,985,146 (Series A)
Total funding: $18,110,147
Investors: Flexport, Y Combinator, Playfair Capital, Elkstone Capital Partners, Firstminute Capital
What they do: Protex AI delivers Proactive Safety Powered by AI. Protex AI’s services provide 24/7 unsafe event capture, revolutionising how enterprise EHS teams make proactive safety decisions
Headquarters: Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
Founders: Fabian Rang, Thorsten Heilig
Year founded: 2020
Latest funding: $6,481,314 (Seed)
Total funding: $10,585,264
Investors: UVC Partners, Interface Capital, LEA Partners, Hannes Ametsreiter
What they do: Paretos is the leading AI-based decision intelligence platform to make effective, data-driven decisions across entire organizations, enabling business users to evaluate complex data, predict future scenarios and take optimal actions via a no-code UI and integrations with no prior data science knowledge needed.
Headquarters: Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Founders: Liu Yunhui, Luyang Li, Mu Fang, Yujie Lu
Year founded: 2016
Latest funding: $75,660,134 (Series C)
Total funding: $139,186,293
Investors: Meituan, ByteDance, Eastern Bell Capital, Shunwei Capital, IDG Capital
What they do: VisionNav® Robotics is a global supplier of autonomous industrial vehicles and intralogistics automation solutions. Based on 5G Communication, AI, Environmental Perception, Deep Learning, Servo Control technologies, VisionNav has developed 9 automated product series including auto forklift and tractor truck for various scenarios. Meanwhile, VisionNav has made significant breakthroughs such as achieving up to 9.4m material storage, up to 2m narrow aisles transmitting, automated truck loading and multi-layer cage stacking. It has successfully completed projects launched in conjunction with more than 50 companies across various industries including automotive, tyre, food, petro-chemical, e-commerce logistics, third party logistics and the pharmaceutical industry.
Headquarters: Torrance, California, United States
Founders: Bruce Scholten, Warren Russell
Year founded: 2016
Latest funding: $40,000,000 (Series C)
Total funding: $67,500,000
Investors: Apollo, S2G Ventures, Husqvarna, Energy Innovation Capital, Cibus Fund
What they do: Moleaer develops industrial scale nanobubble systems, resulting in a radical improvement to the economics of agriculture, separating metals, treating wastewaters and recovering oil. Nanobubbles are unique in that they do not float and have immense surface area. This combination allows nanobubbles to stay suspended in water for long periods of time, resulting in an unprecedented high rate of gas transfer. Moleaer's XTB™ Nanobubble Generators increase productivity, water quality, and eliminate maintenance expenses across a wide range of applications.
Headquarters: Boulder, Colorado, United States
Founders: Jeff Lints
Year founded: 2021
Latest funding: $2,000,000 (Seed)
Total funding: $3,650,000
Investors: AM Ventures, Advanced Industries Accelerator (AIA) Program
What they do: Fortius Metals is a manufacturer of wire consumables for advanced manufacturing services including welding, joining, and 3D printing.
Headquarters: Chandler, Arizona, United States
Founders: Jori VanAntwerp, Ron Fabela
Year founded: 2020
Latest funding: $13,000,000 (Series A)
Total funding: $15,500,000
Investors: Rally Ventures, Cyber Mentor Fund, SYN Ventures
What they do: SynSaber is the industrial asset and network monitoring solution that provides continuous insight into the status, vulnerabilities, and threats, enabling operators to more effectively see, know, and take action to defend industrial systems and protect critical infrastructure. Overcome industrial threats. Defend with laser precision. Navigate your security quest with confidence.
Whether the startups that intrigue you look into streamlining and improving operations or leverage scientific breakthrough to increase the efficiency of and productivity of pre-existing industrial processes, these companies will affect our lives in ways that cannot even be comprehended by most.
Keep updated about the top industrial startups mentioned in this list - you will definitely hear about them in updates on the latest developments in this innovative industry.
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