In a highly competitive supply chain market for industrial companies, Andrea Perissinotto, the co-founder and CEO of the Swiss start-up SAEKI, has a simple pitch to customers. “We are faster, cheaper and greener than traditional manufacturers,” he claims. And SAEKI, which is today announcing it has raised $6.7 million of seed finance, is starting to make good on that promise.
Forbes first profiled SAEKI in August 2023, breaking the news of its pre-seed funding round. Back then, the company’s technology was at prototype stage, delivering impressive test results but yet to prove itself commercially. Some 18 months later, the company’s workforce has expanded five-fold, production has scaled up, and customers have begun to place orders.
The company, launched in 2021 as a spin-out from the Swiss university ETH Zurich, has developed an innovative new production process. Perissonotto and co-founders Oliver Harley and Matthias Leschok have built a robot with 3D printing and machining capabilities. Using high-grade plastic it can produce components of almost any shape and size to order, and take on intricate designs.
Several early customers are in the construction industry, which is hugely reliant on concrete, particularly for foundations and sub-structures. This concrete has to be poured into wooden molds, which are time-consuming to build and have to be scrapped once used. By contrast, SAEKI’s robots can print the molds in a matter of hours – and the material can be recycled for re-use once the mold is no longer required.
Elsewhere, SAEKI has also had early successes in the automotive and aerospace industries, producing composite components, including for a supercar manufacturer in the UK. It also supplies a number of industrial businesses, often with the finished components they need for plant and machinery.
The company has one factory up and running in Switzerland, where its robots can service European customers, but has plans to develop other facilities to increase its capacity and reach. It has also just introduced a new online platform that enables potential customers to post their designs, get a quote for the cost of production, and give the go-ahead; SAEKI’s robots can then start work on their order automatically, with no human intervention.
“One of our biggest challenges has been to get customers to trust in what is a completely new way of doing things,” says Perissonotto. “When we tell people how long an order will take and what it will cost, they don’t quite believe it, so getting across how our process works is critical.”
SAEKI’s process is cheaper, he explains, because the robotic 3D printers use only the materials they need, with no wastage; also, the layering process involved in additive manufacturing makes it easier to tailor the product exactly to the design. Time-wise, the fact that customers can post their designs straight to the robots, and these machines’ ability to work without human operators, speeds up production. And the whole process is much more sustainable – as well as producing less waste, SAEKI’s materials are lighter and can be recycled. The company even offers discounts on repeat orders from customers who return their previous molds for re-use.
The key now is for the company to commercialise more rapidly. Perissonotto is keen to press ahead with additional facilities, as well as to refine the product, adding capabilities such as automated milling to deliver even greater precision. “There is so much potential demand for automated manufacturing of this type, particularly in a market where labour and skills are difficult to find,” he says. “This isn’t just about making parts; it’s about reshaping the way industries approach production.”
Hence today’s funding round, which is led by Lightbird Ventures with participation from Founderful, 2100VC, Danobat and a number of business angels. The round takes the total amount of money raised by the company to $10 million and should provide SAEKI with the headroom to accelerate its scale-up, with additional manufacturing facilities and new capabilities.
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