EthonAI secures 15 million in series A funding round 

ByBoomEditor

AI-powered manufacturing analytics startup catches the eye of investors in latest funding round

31st May 2024

EthonAI, which develops AI-powered manufacturing analytics, has announced its CHF 15m Series A funding – led by Index Ventures. 

Headquartered in Switzerland, EthonAI operates across Europe and North America and 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. 

EthonAI has launched its Manufacturing Analytics System (MAS) which 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%. 

‘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. But data is only valuable if you can digest it, make sense of it, and use it to drive decisions.’ 

Katharina Wilhelm, the partner at Index Ventures
EthonAI secures CHF 15 million in series A funding. Woman with code on face, AI

AI in Action 

One user of EthonAI is Swiss chocolate maker, Lindt. For Lindt to create chocolate, it has to manage 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 uses 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. 

It’s incredible to see the development of AI, with extraordinary computing progress being made year-on-year across industries. It will be interesting to see whether more startups will develop AI-powered efficiencies within this market, which has huge potential for growth. It can certainly be a lucrative opportunity for those who can compete and can catch the eye of investors. 

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