Oqton raises €33.1M to solve today’s manufacturing challenges with AI; here’s how

Oqton, the US- and Belgium-based software company specialising in AI-based manufacturing, today announces it has raised over $40M (nearly €33.1M) in a Series A financing round, led by Fortino Capital, a B2B software investor, by PMV, the regional Flemish investment fund, and by Sandvik, a global engineering group.

The founding team (Samir Hanna and Ben Schrauwen) and several angel investors, including Carl Bass (former CEO Autodesk), Dries Buytaert (Drupal and Acquia), and Peter Mercelis (Layerwise) also participated in the round.

The financing will be used to further develop its platform while expanding its commercial partnerships in multiple domains and verticals (Additive manufacturing, Robotic welding, CNC machining).

What does Oqton do?

Oqton provides a secure end-to-end cloud-based manufacturing platform, which links data across the entire manufacturing ecosystem spanning across designing to logistics. The cloud platform lets manufacturers operate agile factories and manage complex product mixes with a simplified supply chain and lower inventory.

“Users can automatically capture expert knowledge and eliminate repetitive tasks, access technologies remotely and across multiple sites, and optimise production planning to improve utilisation and quality,” says the company.

Samir Hanna, Oqton’s Co-Founder and Chairman, says: “We can already achieve 100 per cent automation in the dental and jewellery verticals, resulting in 30 per cent overall cost reduction. Given the platform strategy, the software can be targeted to many specific industry verticals, like dental, jewellery, medical, industrial and aerospace, as well as to different personas and workflows within those industries.”

According to the company, Ben Schrauwen, its CTO will be taking over as CEO. Samir Hanna, Oqton’s co-founder and leaving CEO, will become Executive Chairman. Both Hanna and Schrauwen are serial entrepreneurs and have previously worked at Autodesk together.

Founded in 2017, Oqton has 60 employees, a corporate base in San Francisco, USA, and three R&D centres in Belgium, Denmark and China.

Acquisition helps broaden digital manufacturing for Sandvik

Sandvik is a Stockholm-based global engineering group that offers products and services touted to enhance customer productivity, profitability and sustainability. The company is a global leader in select positions such as tools and tooling systems for metal cutting; equipment and tools, service and technical solutions for the mining industry and rock excavation within the construction industry; products in advanced stainless steels and special alloys as well as products for industrial heating. The company has acquired a minority stake in Oqton.

“This investment is in line with our strategic agenda to broaden our offering in digital manufacturing. We are looking forward to working with Oqton and finding ways to expand our offering for increased customer productivity by creating new products that take advantage of Sandvik’s extensive know-how about manufacturing processes and Oqton’s AI-powered manufacturing solutions”, says Stefan Widing, President and CEO of Sandvik.

The relationship with Oqton will be managed by Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions’ division Design & Planning Automation, within the business area Sandvik Manufacturing and Machining Solutions.