EthonAI closes USD 6.8M seed financing round

EthonAI secures USD 6.8M (CHF 6.27M) seed funding to bring its cutting-edge quality management platform to a broader market. The round is co-led by Earlybird & La Famiglia with additional investment from existing investors, Wingman and Acequia Capital.

EthonAI, an industrial tech spin-off from ETH Zurich in Switzerland, has secured a USD 6.8M seed round co-led by Earlybird Venture Capital and La Famiglia with participation of existing investors, Wingman and Acequia Capital. Powered by AI, EthonAI’s software helps manufacturers boost performance by detecting, monitoring, and preventing quality losses at scale.

Poor quality is a massive cost-driver for firms in all manufacturing industries. It makes up a significant portion of production costs — estimated at around 20% of sales revenue — and it risks damaging brand reputation and harming the environment. Early detection of defective products (before they reach customers), reduces the risk of poor quality products, and leads to more customer satisfaction. However, only reacting to defects once they happen is insufficient. To avoid quality losses, manufacturers must proactively identify the underlying root causes to prevent similar defects in the future. Despite its critical importance, methods of quality management predate the digital era. They don’t take advantage of recent developments in computer science. Until now.

The funding will help to further develop EthonAI’s technology and bring its products to a wider market. “We are thrilled to have the support of Earlybird and La Famiglia as we continue to grow and expand our product platform,” says EthonAI CEO Dr. Julian Senoner. “With this funding, we can bring our tools to more manufacturers globally and invest in the development of new features such as simulation based on causal machine learning.”

One year after the company’s incorporation, EthonAI counts leading manufacturers, like Siemens, Roche, and Lindt & Sprüngli, among its customers. “At Siemens, we are always looking for ways to improve the efficiency of our manufacturing processes,” explains Alexander Dierolf, Head of the IT Value Center Data Intelligence & Automation at Siemens SI. “EthonAI’s tools impressed us because of their ease of use and scalability. We already use them in multiple Siemens factories in Europe and the US—and are currently scaling the EthonAI platform to other sites.”

EthonAI redefines the way manufacturers approach quality management. By aggregating process and quality data into a single platform, manufacturers can use EthonAI’s advanced AI methods to analyze and improve the quality of their products and processes. The platform offers a suite of software tools for vision-based defect detection, process monitoring, and root cause analysis without process engineers and quality managers writing a single line of code. Manufacturers using the EthonAI platform have seen significant increases in productivity and over 50% reduction in quality losses. This improves manufacturers’ financial performance and helps reduce environmental impact.

“EthonAI’s hardware-independent and easy-to-deploy solution creates a completely new level of transparency for product quality across processes and factories,” says Earlybird Partner Dr. Andre Retterath. “Their holistic approach has the potential to revolutionize the way manufacturers manage quality and we are glad to back the team on their mission.”

“Quality management is a critical concern for manufacturers of all sizes,” says La Famiglia Partner Judith Dada. “After having looked at dozens of companies in the space, we finally got convinced that the team behind EthonAI has what it takes to win this market. We believe that EthonAI’s tools can help companies improve efficiency, reduce costs, and ultimately produce higher quality products. We are excited to be a part of the company’s journey as it continues to grow and succeed.”