Kreatize, which claims to be Germany’s first fully-automated digital platform that supports the production of industrial components for the mechanical engineering market and its manufacturing partners, has raised €4 million in its Series A round of funding only 18 months after market launch.
The main investors involved in this round are Earlybird Venture Capital and Atlantic Labs.
Kreatize primarily serves the manufacturing industry – a market that offers enormous potential for digitization, as it is still characterized by analog, manual and inefficient processes and non-transparent prices.
CEO and co-founder Simon Tüchelmann, who founded Kreatize together with Daniel Garcia Rodriguez in December 2015, says: “With a volume of almost €670 billion, the overall mechanical engineering market is one of the largest B2B markets in Europe, and at the same time, the backbone of German SMEs.
“With our solutions, we help our manufacturing partners increase their capacity utilization and offer our customers in the mechanical engineering market attractive prices and extremely short delivery times – a win-win for both sides.
“The feedback from our more than 200 customers and 300 manufacturing partners has been excellent, and has encouraged us to use the new capital to expand throughout Europe.”
With locations in Berlin and Tübingen and over 30 employees, the Kreatize team combines the best of both worlds – the classic manufacturing industry in the south and the tech world in Berlin.
With its automation platform, Kreatize offers mechanical engineering companies and manufacturing partners services from complete order processing to the delivery of industrial components.
Tüchelmann says: “We offer mechanical engineering companies real added value by mapping the entire production chain and automating the purchasing process for our customers across the board.”
In just a few clicks, customers can request a bid, order industrial components and track the status of their order online.
Production partners can simultaneously increase their production capacities and accept orders.
In the future, the company will continue to expand the platform and use improved data evaluation methods and machine learning to optimize capacities, prices, and transparency.
Dr Fabian Heilemann, partner at Earlybird, says: “We see a great need for digital innovation and process automation in the manufacturing industry.
“In addition, the market for producers and buyers of manufacturing parts is still more regionally structured than internationally liquid and transparent.
“As an innovation leader in Europe, Kreatize addresses these problems and the resulting opportunities with a platform that covers the entire ‘end-to-end’ process chain.
“In its DNA, the Kreatize team combines in-depth industry know-how from mechanical engineering and parts production with proven digital competence, and as a result, is ideally positioned to become the leading international player in this market segment.”
