factorymaker has closed a €1.1 million pre-seed round to accelerate the development of its AI-powered platform for industrial facility and production layout planning. The round was led by Berlin-based 2bX and joined by XISTA Science Ventures, closing in January 2026.
The investment comes at a pivotal moment. European manufacturers are under growing pressure to build and adapt facilities for Industry 4.0, the green transition and reshoring, and traditional planning methods simply cannot keep pace.
The problem factorymaker is solving
Conventional industrial facility planning is slow, complex, and error-prone. Manually drafting a single factory floor layout costs on average €70,000 and requires 100 workdays, making it impractical to adapt layouts to changing demands. Siloed workstreams and fragmented tools add further complexity, leading to costly planning errors down the line.
Minutes instead of weeks
Using AI-powered design agents and a proprietary database of real-world projects, factorymaker automates design work that typically takes weeks. Where industrial planners could previously explore only two or three design variants for a layout, the platform evaluates and ranks 100,000 options in minutes, allowing planners to choose the best-performing ones and removing a major barrier to replanning.
Each design variant is assessed across cost, workflow efficiency, and environmental impact. The platform is used throughout the facility lifecycle, from conceptual planning to ongoing factory layout adaptations. Clients report 82% less planning time, 21% lower building costs, 36% reduced material transport flow, and significant carbon footprint reductions.
The platform is already used by industrial enterprises, including Siemens Energy, Schaeffler, and Hilti.
The right partners for the journey ahead
factorymaker is grateful to have found investors who share its vision for the future of industrial planning.
“The response from leading investment funds underscores the urgency of transforming industrial facility and production layout planning through automation,” said Maria Zahlbruckner, co-founder of factorymaker. “We were in the lucky position to choose the best partners for us.”
Mark Harré, General Partner at 2bX, noted: “Industrial facility planning is a multi-billion euro market that still runs largely on manual processes – for us, that signals a massive opportunity for disruption. Maria and Julia bring a rare combination of deep domain expertise and product vision, they’re building the platform this industry has been waiting for.”
Dr. Annu Gmeiner, Principal at XISTA Science Ventures, added: “Planning and replanning industrial buildings and production layouts is a manual, labor-intensive process where, according to various sources, 90% of project errors originate, leading to billions in annual rework costs. factorymaker addresses this through Automated Design Agents and Integrated Optimization for both new builds and existing facility adaptation. The platform’s use by industry leaders like Siemens Energy, Hilti, and Schaeffler validates the urgent need for this technology. We’re excited to partner with exceptional co-founders Maria and Julia as they transform industrial facility planning.”
The funding will be used to accelerate factorymaker’s market expansion and product development.
“We’re able to scale at a critical moment,” said Dr. Julia Reisinger, co-founder of factorymaker. “European manufacturers face unprecedented pressure to build and adapt their facilities due to shifting pressures and demands. Traditional planning methods can’t keep up. That’s the bottleneck we’re solving.”
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About 2bX
2bX is a Berlin-based venture capital firm investing in early-stage UrbanTech and deep-tech companies across Europe.
About XISTA Science Ventures
XISTA Science Ventures is an Austria-based venture fund investing in early-stage life science and deeptech startups across Europe. With a deep understanding of both scientific and investor perspectives, XISTA is an active partner to its portfolio companies, providing support for founders in realizing deep-tech ideas and scaling enterprises. The fund’s diverse portfolio spans the full breadth of science, in fields such as biotechnology, medtech, materials science and software. XISTA is embedded in the innovation system around the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA).
About factorymaker
factorymaker began as a research project by Dr. Julia Reisinger at TU Wien in 2020. Founded in 2024, factorymaker is an AI-powered platform for industrial facility and production layout planning. The company serves industrial enterprises and consultancies across Europe in greenfield and brownfield projects. Its co-founders are Maria Zahlbruckner and Dr. Julia Reisinger, and its CTO is Leonardo Lino.