Above: Oqton MES for AM Scheduling/Image Source: Oqton
Oqton, Inc., the U.S.- and Belgium-based software company specialising in AI-powered solutions for the manufacturing industry, announced the raising of over $40M in a Series A financing round. The AI-powered solutions help in managing the complex additive manufacturing workflows. The funding round was led by Fortino Capital, a leading 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).
Oqton’s Additive Manufacturing Workflow Solutions
Above: Oqton’s Additive Manufacturing Workflow Solution operates on three pillars/Image Source: Oqton
Oqton has developed an AI-powered platform for 3D printing and Additive Manufacturing. This additive manufacturing workflow solution operates on three pillars, namely, AI-powered Manufacturing Execution System, A cloud-based industrial IoT-platform and Integrated Build Preparation.
The platform offers total visibility with the ability to combine several manufacturing software capabilities (CAD, PLM, CAM, IOT, MES, QMS) into a single platform, enabling an unprecedented degree of AI-powered automation and optimization. Users can automatically capture expert knowledge and eliminate repetitive tasks, access technologies remotely and across multiple sites, and optimize production planning to improve utilization and quality.
Speaking on the funding round, Samir Hanna, Oqton’s Co-Founder and Chairman, said, “We can already achieve 100% automation in the dental and jewelry verticals, resulting in 30% overall cost reduction. Given the platform strategy, the software can be targeted to many specific industry verticals, like dental, jewelry, medical, industrial and aerospace, as well as to different personas and workflows within those industries.”
[penci_related_posts taxonomies=”undefined” title=”Related Posts” background=”” border=”Blue” thumbright=”no” number=”4″ style=”list” align=”none” displayby=”tag” orderby=”random”]
Being fully integrated, users can also link the additive manufacturing workflow platform to their traditional technologies, such as CNC, welding, and post-processing machines for a truly end-to-end manufacturing solution, making their processes faster, more adaptable, and more cost-effective. Oqton has already established partnerships with EOS, Sisma, Trumpf and Sandvik.
Oqton’s Co-Founder and CEO, Ben Schrauwen, experssed, “We are keen to have new investors on board who can help us scale globally, with both a direct and indirect sales approach. We truly think the time has come for the manufacturing space to embrace the cloud and we are working hard to facilitate this.”
This funding round coincides with the announcement that Ben Schrauwen, Oqton’s CTO, will be taking over as CEO. Samir Hanna, Oqton’s Co-Founder and leaving CEO, will become Executive Chairman.
About Oqton: Oqton develops AI-powered manufacturing solutions to allow manufacturers to manage, optimize, and automate their additive manufacturing workflows. Their software offering is a secure, cloud-based platform that links data across the complete manufacturing ecosystem – from design to production to logistics. Founded in San Francisco, Oqton is based in Ghent, Belgium, with offices in the US, China and Denmark.
About Manufactur3D Magazine: Manufactur3D is an online magazine on 3D Printing. Visit our Global News page for more updates on Global 3D Printing News. To stay up-to-date about the latest happenings in the 3D printing world, like us on Facebook or follow us on LinkedIn.
