Forgis Raises $4.5 Million in Pre‑Seed Funding to Bring AI-Powered Automation to European Factories
Forgis, a Swiss industrial automation startup founded in 2025 in Zurich by Federico Martelli, Camilla Mazzoleni, and Riccardo Maggioni, has quickly made a name for itself in the deep tech sector after securing a significant pre‑seed funding round to accelerate its mission of bringing AI‑powered intelligence to factory floors across Europe. The company, which develops edge software that connects industrial machines, programmable logic controllers, and robots into a unified, adaptive layer, announced around $4.5 million (€3.8 million) in pre‑seed financing to expand product development, scale operations, and deepen pilot deployments with manufacturing partners.
The pre‑seed round was led by redalpine, the Zurich‑based venture capital firm known for backing early‑stage enterprise and deep tech companies, underscoring investor confidence in Forgis’ ability to address longstanding industrial automation challenges with software‑centric solutions. Alongside redalpine, the round saw participation from Massimo Banzi, co‑founder of Arduino and a respected figure in hardware and embedded systems, who brought both capital and domain expertise to the startup. Additional investors in the round included a consortium of deep tech and manufacturing‑focused backers, such as Venture Kick, Founderful Campus, S2S Ventures, Talent Kick, and the Gebert Rüf Stiftung, reflecting a broad base of support from both angel and institutional sources.
In addition to the main financing, Forgis also earlier received CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick as part of its support programme for high‑potential Swiss startups. That seed support helped the team validate its product, bolster its go‑to‑market strategy, and prepare for discussions with venture capital investors before closing the larger round.
Forgis’ technology aims to tackle a core issue in European manufacturing: fragmented and ageing production systems that struggle to compete with high‑volume, highly automated facilities in Asia and the U.S. By providing an AI‑enabled orchestration layer, the company’s software enables existing industrial assets to communicate, adapt, and optimise production logic autonomously in real time — reducing configuration times, curbing downtime, and increasing throughput without requiring expensive hardware replacements. Early pilot projects with advanced manufacturing and automotive clients have reportedly yielded configuration time reductions of up to 60 per cent and throughput improvements of around 20 per cent as firms explore ways to modernise their operations.
The rapid closure of the pre‑seed round — completed in just 36 hours after receiving multiple term sheets from both U.S. and European investors — highlighted strong conviction in the company’s vision and the opportunities in industrial AI. Forgis’ leadership emphasised the strategic importance of building foundational industrial software within Europe’s manufacturing ecosystem rather than relocating its operations to the United States, signalling a commitment to local innovation and reshoring industrial capabilities.
Forgis also underwent a rebrand from its original name, Xelerit, to better reflect its broader ambitions of becoming a core infrastructure layer for factory automation, likened by the team to creating a “Windows for factories” — a ubiquitous, user‑friendly platform that abstracts the complexity of diverse industrial hardware. With the fresh capital, Forgis plans to expand its engineering team, deepen technological integrations with established industrial players, and accelerate the deployment of its edge‑software platform across automotive and advanced manufacturing sectors.
The funding round comes at a time of heightened investor interest in industrial automation and physical AI startups in Europe, as manufacturers seek to modernise legacy systems and maintain competitiveness on a global scale. Forgis’ strategic partnerships — including collaborations with IBM and compatibility with major industrial equipment vendors — have positioned it to capitalise on this shift. The company’s approach of enhancing existing assets rather than replacing them aligns with broader industry trends that prioritise cost‑effective, incremental automation upgrades over wholesale infrastructure overhauls.
As Forgis accelerates its growth with the new financing and support from its investor base, the startup is positioning itself as a key player in Europe’s industrial intelligence landscape, addressing both technological and economic imperatives for manufacturers grappling with global competition and long‑term productivity challenges.
