Swiss startup Cerrion secured €15.6M to accelerate US growth and bring its real-time AI video intelligence to more factories amid rising global production challenges.

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Zurich-based Cerrion, an AI video agent platform, has raised $18M (approximately €15.6M) in Series A funding led by leading early-stage venture firm — Creandum.

Others, including existing investors Y Combinator, Goat Capital (Justin Kan, Founder of Twitch), 10x Founders and Session VC, also participated. 

Prominent angels include Harry Stebbings (20VC), Oskar Hjertonsson, Thomas Wolf (Founder of Hugging Face) and Garret Langley (Founder of Flock Safety), who also backed the company.

Additional angels involved include Filip Kaliszan (Founder of Verkada), Marc Maurer (ex-CEO of On Running), and Carl Rivera (Chief Design Officer of Shopify). 

The Swiss company will use the funds to accelerate US expansion plans following adoption across Europe by manufacturers including Unilever and Riedel.

Additionally, the company plans to use this funding to double its headcount in Europe and the US, and expand the platform beyond vision, supporting a broader range of manufacturing processes and customers.

Founded in 2003, Creandum has backed Europe’s most ambitious tech companies from seed to exit across industries.

To date, the company has invested in more than 120 companies in four of the most vibrant startup ecosystems globally: Stockholm, London, Berlin, and San Francisco. 

Hanel Baveja, Partner at Creandum (who led the investment into Cerrion) says, “Manufacturing is one of the few major industries where we haven’t yet seen AI deliver transformational value until now. Cerrion has built a product that works immediately within existing production environments – giving operators real-time intelligence and insights they’ve never had before. This is the kind of real-world AI application that has the potential to transform a $20tn industry” 

What does Cerrion solve?

Factory downtime costs the global manufacturing industry $1.4T every year.

As energy prices rise and supply chains become more complicated, downtime costs have jumped 319 per cent since 2019.

Cerrion addresses this issue by using AI video agents to help factory workers monitor hard-to-see areas.

Cerrion: AI agents for the manufacturing industry

Founded by Karim Saleh and Nikolay Kobyshev in 2021, Cerrion builds video AI agents for the manufacturing industry.

These agents assist operators in quickly identifying and responding to process issues, quality problems, and safety risks.

They can send alerts, slow down or stop machines, and notify the right personnel instantly.

This mix of AI support and human teamwork allows manufacturers to solve problems up to 50 per cent faster, cutting downtime and scrap losses in half.

The business already spans three continents and 15 countries, working across six manufacturing verticals – including food, beverage, glass, wood, building materials and CPG industries. 

Cerrion is in live production environments at manufacturers including Unilever, Riedel, Schott Zwiesel, Stölzle Lausitz, Sisecam, and Verallia across glass, food, timber, and CPG industries – manufacturers that supply products to major global brands like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Pfizer, and Novartis.

They work with leading manufacturers in the food, beverage, glass, wood, building materials and CPG industries. The company claims that its revenue has grown tenfold since 2024.

Karim Saleh, Co-Founder and CEO of Cerrion, says, “Global manufacturers are facing mounting pressure from unplanned downtime and rising operational costs, and the demand for solutions that tackle these challenges has never been higher. This funding not only allows us to reach and help more manufacturers, but also reaffirms our reputation as the team at the forefront of the journey towards smarter, AI-driven manufacturing processes”