EthonAI, a startup in industrial technology, has just raised roughly €6.3 million for its platform that can scale up manufacturing quality improvement. The Zurich-based group now intends to grow and aid other manufacturers in quality control management.
With participation from current investors Wingman and Acequia Capital, the €6.3 million seed round was led by Earlybird VC and La Famiglia.
Poor quality costs manufacturers 20% of their sales revenue, jeopardizes their reputation, and has an impact on the environment. Customers are happier, fewer items (and money) are wasted, and a brand’s reputation is improved when faults and quality problems can be identified early.
To take it a step further, brands shouldn’t merely take a reactive stance, responding to flaws as they are discovered. Instead, they ought to diagnose the issue proactively, figure out what the issue was, and learn from past errors.
Zurich-based EthonAI is outfitted with the purpose to accomplish this. The startup, an offshoot of ETH Zurich, has recently acquired more money to expand.
Dr. Andre Retterath, an Earlybird Partner, said: “EthonAI’s hardware-independent and simple-to-deploy solution delivers an entirely new degree of transparency for product quality across processes and factories. We are happy to support the team in their endeavors because their comprehensive approach has the potential to alter the way manufacturers handle quality.
EthonAI’s software, which was founded in 2021, aids manufacturers in improving performance by spotting, observing, and preventing quality losses on a large scale.
Process and quality data are gathered and stored on the platform. Then, manufacturers receive full oversight and have access to EthonAI’s AI tools to assess and enhance the quality of their outputs.
Currently, the SaaS product provides a set of software tools for process monitoring, root cause analysis, and vision-based defect identification without requiring process engineers and quality managers to write a single line of code.
The Zurich-based team asserts that current clients, such as Siemens, Roche, and Lindt & Sprüngli, have experienced notable gains in productivity and a reduction of over 50% in quality losses. Users have experienced better financial results and less environmental impact as a result.
Alexander Dierolf, Head of the Data Intelligence & Automation IT Value Center at Siemens SI: “At Siemens, we’re constantly searching for ways to make our manufacturing processes more effective. We were amazed at EthonAI’s tools because of how user-friendly and scalable they were. We already employ them in numerous Siemens plants around Europe and the US, and we are expanding the EthonAI platform to new locations.
With this additional capital, the firm will now advance its proprietary technology and expand the market for its product line.
“We are happy to have the backing of Earlybird and La Famiglia as we continue to grow and expand our product platform,” said Dr. Julian Senoner, CEO of EthonAI. With this funding, we can expand the number of manufacturers who use our products around the world and invest in the creation of fresh features like simulation based on causal machine learning.
Partner of La Famiglia, Judith Dada: “Managing quality is a key problem for firms of all sizes. We finally concluded that the team behind EthonAI has what it takes to conquer this industry after examining dozens of organizations in the area.
“We think that EthonAI’s technologies can aid businesses in increasing productivity, cutting expenses, and eventually producing goods of superior quality. We are thrilled to be a part of the business’s journey as it develops and thrives, said Judith.
Image Credit: EthonAI
