Manukai AG

🔧 Why is the most essential manufacturing process still stuck in the 90s? In our latest Supercritical episode, I spoke with Pascal Weber, CEO of Manukai AG, about one of the most overlooked frontiers in tech: industrial automation. From aerospace to medical devices, CNC machining powers the modern world. But while other sectors are rapidly adopting AI, manufacturing still lags behind—with only ~7% automation adoption, compared to 75% in services. Why? Fragmentation, legacy systems, and a growing shortage of skilled labor. Manukai is tackling this head-on with AI-powered tools that act like autocomplete for manufacturing—cutting programming time by 80% and reducing production time by 15%. They recently raised a $3M pre-seed round led by QBIT Capital with the participation of Bloomhaus Ventures AG and Innosuisse to accelerate their growth. The Critical Tech | Dr. Micol C. 🎧 Full episode → link in comments #Supercritical #DeepTech #IndustrialAutomation #Manufacturing #AI #CNC #Productivity #FutureOfWork #Industry40 #IndustrialTech #Manufacturing #IndustrialResilience

🧠 Why we founded Manukai. ◇ We came from academia to build something that matters. To empower manufacturing, fix broken workflows, and make it easier to create the tools and goods that improve our lives. ◆ Why? ❌ AI is mostly focused on how we consume things — not how we build them ❌ Manufacturing is stuck with outdated tools for complex problems ❌ Engineering challenges are being overlooked ◇ Our take: In today's world it becomes increasingly important to fix how we create stuff, not just how we consume them. #founderjourney #startuplife #deeptech #AI #manufacturing #hardtech #engineering Bloomhaus Ventures AG QBIT Capital Swiss Economic Forum Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Swissmem SWISSMECHANIC CSEM digitalswitzerland Swissnex Switzerland Innovation Empa Innosuisse Swiss Startup Association

🚀 Talent Kick Insights: Celebrating March Milestones from our Talent Kick teams and alumni 🚀 As April rolls in, we’re taking a moment to look back at a March full of exciting milestones from current Talent Kick teams and alumni. Here's a quick recap of what went down 👇 🌿 Two of our TK-S24 teams made strong progress through Venture Kick: Xelerit secured CHF 10,000 at Stage 1 to advance their mission of making reshoring viable by accelerating and simplifying industrial automation. fortyfour won CHF 40,000 at Stage 2 for their innovative approach to greenhouse cultivation using direct air capture — a cleantech solution addressing sustainability in agriculture. 🌟 Highlights from our alumni network: 🐍 RoBoa (TK-S21) also celebrated a Venture Kick milestone, earning CHF 150,000 in support to continue developing their promising deep tech solution. 🤖 mimic (TK-S23) secured CHF 1.1 million in funding through a mix of Innosuisse and Venture Kick support to develop their data collection capabilities and to push their go-to-market strategy. 🦷 IMPLANZ (TK-S23) received CHF 100,000 in start-up funding from the Bern Economic Development Agency. Their tech helps surgeons assess bone quality before surgery, improving predictability and personalization in dental implantology. 🚀And closing the month with a headline moment: Manukai AG (TK-S23) raised a CHF 3 million pre-seed round to tackle one of the biggest bottlenecks in manufacturing: CNC programming. From early-stage grants to multi-million rounds, March was packed with great momentum for Xelerit, fortyfour, RoBoa, mimic, IMPLANZ, and Manukai AG. Bring it on, April! We're ready for another month of exciting milestones 🤩 #SwissStartups #MarchMilestones #TalentKickTeams #StartupFunding #VentureKick #DeepTech #Switzerland 

📉 The truth behind early-stage fundraising. ◇ Before Manukai AG could announce a $3M pre-seed round, we heard “no” more than 150 times. ◆ Why? ❌ Unit economics don’t work for B2B in small- and mid-market ❌ The market is too small ❌ ..too fragmented ❌ ..too unclear ◇ Our take: founders should not operate on consensus and hype. You see something others don’t — yet. It’s our job to take every “no” as fuel. To dig deeper, think harder, and keep building. #founderjourney #startuplife #deeptech #AI #manufacturing #preseed #fundraising Bloomhaus Ventures AG QBIT Capital Talent Kick Swisspreneur SICTIC Bluelion CyberLab Startup Accelerator Startup Nights startup days founders2 PMF Factory Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Swiss Economic Forum

◇ Rückblick auf die Hannover Messe 2025 – geballte Innovation im Bereich AI & Fertigung! ◆ Pascal Weber und Nicolas Vetsch waren wieder unterwegs und haben einige echte Highlights entdeckt – und wie immer ein paar besondere Teile gefeiert (sogar ein Teil vom PSI Paul Scherrer Institut hat's nach Hannover geschafft). ◇ Beeindruckend zu sehen, wie viel Momentum AI im Manufacturing geniesst: 📌 Sandvik stellt in Zusammenarbeit mit Microsoft zur vereinfachten Bedienung von CAM-Oberflächen (in Mastercam) vor 📌 Generatives Design powered by PTC und Autodesk, damit die Konstruktion in Zukunft noch schneller und besser wird 📌 Der nächste grosse Schritt: Foundation Models für die Fertigung, angekündigt von Siemens Und natürlich: grossartige Gespräche mit zahlreichen deutschen Herstellern quer durch alle Branchen – sie zeigen uns immer wieder, wie zentral CNC für Europas industrielle Zukunft bleibt. Vielen Dank an Redstone, Michael Brehm, Bosch Rexroth, Martin May, SCHUNK - Hand in hand for tomorrow, AERZEN worldwide, KAESER KOMPRESSOREN, FISCHER Spindle Group AG, Daniel Stachowski, Eichenberger Gewinde AG, PH Industrie-Hydraulik GmbH & Co. KG, Knubben Elias, Festo, Endress+Hauser Group, Beckhoff Automation, Weidmüller Germany, Airbus, Next Level Mittelstand, SmartFactory Kaiserslautern, EIT Manufacturing, KUKA, Siemens Digital Industries Software, Pfeiffer Vacuum+Fab Solutions, HARTING Technology Group, Continental, MANN+HUMMEL, VDMA, WIKA Group, RINGSPANN GmbH, SEW Eurodrive – wir kommen wieder! #HannoverMesse2025 #HM25 #AIinManufacturing #CNC #CAM #Fertigungsinnovation #Industrie40 #Maschinenbau

🚀 Growth Academy 2.0 concludes after 12 impactful weeks! An intense journey comes to an end – marked by deep learning, valuable exchange and measurable progress in the search for Product-Market Fit. Throughout the programme, participants explored challenges, tested assumptions and sharpened their strategies. Here are four key takeaways that resonated across the academy: 🔍 Experiment more – learn more Speed matters. Testing early and often provides better signals than waiting for the perfect plan. Curiosity and data-driven decisions accelerate growth. 🔄 Pivots are progress A change in direction isn’t a setback – it’s a sign of learning. Flexibility is essential in navigating the early stages of building a successful business. 📏 PMF can be measured Product-Market Fit isn’t just intuition. One strong indicator? Customer success. If users are achieving real value and spreading the word, that’s a clear signal. 🎯 Focus is key Not every customer is the right customer. Success starts by identifying and doubling down on the users who truly benefit from the product. The finale: a pitching session and joint certificate ceremony to celebrate the commitment and achievements of all participating start-ups. Congratulations to the entire cohort – and thank you for your energy, insights and collaboration: ahead AG, Altoo AG, Augment IT AG, aumico, Manukai AG, PrivacyBee AG, Solarify.ch, Splint Invest, Get More Brain, Gossik, TINAMU. Special congrats to Wheycation (Lokalgenuss AG) 👏🏼 for winning the "peer to peer award" 🚀 A big thank you to our special guest today Lukas Gysin and to all other guest speakers for their contribution Thomas Dübendorfer, Raphael Schaad, Herbert Bay, Laurent Decrue, Manuel Hartmann, Stefan Zanetti and Melanie Gabriel 💚 #GrowthAcademy #SEFGrowth #ProductMarketFit #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #PMF Lukas Froesch, Christoph Bernhard, Michael Sauter

This week, four Swiss startups have successfully raised almost CHF 447 million from investors, both local and international, proving that growth capital is well within reach for companies in Switzerland. If you want to stay up to date, subscribe to the Venturelab Startup Funding newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dF8a7Tpt Meet this week’s successful startups: MoonLake Immunotherapeutics (NASDAQ: MLTX) secures CHF 427 million for the future launch of sonelokimab, additional clinical trials and further investments for growth. Bloom Biorenewables raises CHF 13 million for sustainable materials development. Revoltab AG secures CHF 4.3 million to advance smart home fragrance innovations. Manukai AG secures CHF 2.6 million to blend CNC machining with AI enhancement. Check also the Swiss Venture Insights Q4 Report: https://lnkd.in/d6CVvpj   #SwissStartups #Fundraising 

KI-Startup Manukai sammelt 3 Millionen Dollar Das ETH-Spin-off Manukai konnte in einer überzeichneten Pre-Seed-Finanzierungsrunde 3 Millionen Dollar einnehmen. Das Startup entwickelt proprietäre KI-Modelle, um den Wert von Daten in der Fertigung zu erschliessen. Das frische Kapital soll in die Weiterentwicklung des Produkts investiert werden, das die CNC-Bearbeitung (Computer Numerical Control) effizienter machen soll. ETH Zürich #Startup #Finance #Manukai Manukai AG #CNC Pascal Weber Daniel Wälchli Petros Koumoutsakos Torbjørn Netland Philipp Bolliger Heinrich Bruhin https://lnkd.in/eFY_V8rv

Congratulations to our spin-off Manukai AG for a successful pre-seed round! 🚀 Manukai is developing AI-based software that helps companies to make the most of the potential of manufacturing data. The solution integrates into existing CNC tools and optimizes the programming of high-precision metal parts using data-driven algorithms. 👇

Große Neuigkeiten von der Manukai AG! 🎉   Das Startup hat eine 3-Millionen-Dollar-Pre-Seed-Finanzierung erhalten, mit der es einen der größten Engpässe in der Fertigungsindustrie angeht: die CNC-Programmierung.💻 💸   Manukai entwickelt eine KI, die bestehende Workflows optimiert, Programmierer:innen produktiver macht und den Wert historischer Daten sichert – direkt vor Ort. ✅   Herzlichen Glückwunsch und viel Erfolg für die Zukunft! ✨