Smart manufacturing companies offer production through automation and data exchange. These innovative companies enhance production lines with advanced robotics and IoT solutions and implement AI-driven predictive maintenance systems to boost efficiency and productivity. They specialize in supply chain optimization through real-time data analytics and offer smart factory solutions integrating cloud computing and big data. Additionally, these startups focus on developing robust cybersecurity measures tailored for industrial control systems to ensure operational safety and integrity. Explore the top 20 emerging startups that shape the future of Industry 4.0 in 2025 and beyond.
Global Startup Heat Map highlights 20 Industry 4.0 Startups to Watch in 2025
Through the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering over 5M+ startups, 20K+ technology trends plus 150M+ patents, news articles & market reports, we identified 2604 Industry 4.0 startups.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights the 20 Industry 4.0 startups you should watch in 2025 as well as the geo-distribution of all startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. The largest global hubs for these startups are Bangalore, London, NYC, Pune, and Hyderabad.
Explore 20 Industry 4.0 Startups to Watch (2025)
We hand-picked the 20 Industry 4.0 startups to showcase below based on our data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, the relevance of technology & funding, among others.
- FactoryPal – AI-driven Manufacturing Optimization
- Factory AI – Predictive Maintenance
- visionplatform.ai – Computer Vision Platform
- Industry Tech Solutions – Vision-Guided Robotics
- Things Embedded – Industrial Edge Computing
- Smart Industrial Automation (SIA) – Accumulation Table
- Vivity AI – Sustainable Manufacturing Process
- Oinride – Autonomous Electric Robots
- OTee – Industrial Automation Engineering
- SpatialThink – 3D Digital Twins
- Robco – Modular Robots
- i4Twins – Digital Twin Creation
- iSIMplatform – Factory Management
- dataLobster – Industrial Equipment Monitoring
- Xentara – Smart Manufacturing
- Dfxbot – Physical Storage Tracking
- MINT – Cold Room Monitoring
- FloWide – Smart Intralogistics
- Mantis Robotics – Collaborative Robots
- WareBee – Warehouse Digital Twins
FactoryPal enables AI-driven Manufacturing Optimization
- Startup Name: Four Kites
- Founding Year: 2020
- Country: Berlin, Germany
- Technology: Shop Floor Performance Optimization
FactoryPal, a Germany-based company, revolutionizes manufacturing by synergizing human expertise and digital intelligence to enhance shop floor performance. Its modular application provides secure data collection, real-time monitoring, and AI-driven machine settings management to mitigate operational challenges.
By delivering comprehensive data analytics and actionable insights, the company reduces machine downtimes and documentation time that leads to significant increases in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). Ultimately, FactoryPal empowers manufacturers to achieve seamless operations and optimized production, driving efficiency and profitability.
Factory AI advances Predictive Maintenance
- Startup Name: Factory AI
- Founding Year: 2023
- Country: Sydney, Australia
- Technology: Asset Health Analysis, Anomaly Detection
Australian startup Factory AI builds an AI-powered platform to enhance asset availability in manufacturing through predictive maintenance. Its system analyzes and diagnoses maintenance challenges, reducing unplanned downtime.
The platform integrates various data sources, enabling in-depth monitoring. This includes insights into the performance of pumps, fans, conveyors, and other equipment. Factory AI enables production, maintenance and operations teams to solve maintenance challenges using data.
visionplatform.ai offers a Computer Vision Platform
- Startup Name: visionplatform.ai
- Founding Year: 2023
- Country: Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Technology: Quality Control, Process Optimization
Dutch startup visionplatform.ai develops a computer vision system to accelerate AI workflows. The platform allows businesses to upload, annotate, manage, and train their data and deploy custom models on edge devices. Moreover, it sends alerts on important events and schedules automatic tasks, offering real-time updates to production lines.
The startup’s platform caters to a range of industries, including agriculture, automotive, construction, electronics, healthcare, logistics, and more. For instance, manufacturers use AI vision technology to enable real-time inspection and defect detection in production lines. This, in turn, allows them to ensure high product quality and avoid faulty products reaching customers.
Industry Tech Solutions provides Vision-guided Robotics
- Startup Name: Industry Tech Solutions
- Founding Year: 2022
- Country: Science Hill, KY, US
- Technology: Industrial Automation, Smart Manufacturing
Industry Tech Solutions is a US-based startup that provides advanced automation solutions spanning machine vision and robotic assembly. It offers vision inspection systems, including multi-point quality inspection and short-shot detection. It also offers robotic solutions that utilizes grippers and vision-assisted motion to provide enhanced precision, efficiency, and reduced labor requirements.
The startup uses technologies such as machine learning, 3D vision inspection, vision-guided robotics, collaborative robotics, flexible end-of-arm tooling, and rapid prototyping. The startup’s solutions automate visual inspections, palletizing, and detection of issues in injection molding.
Things Embedded advances Industrial Edge Computing
- Startup Name: Things Embedded
- Founding Year: 2022
- Country: Staffordshire, UK
- Technology: On-site Data Processing, AI-Powered Video Analytics
Things Embedded, a UK-based startup, offers tailored industrial edge computing solutions, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) or custom-built industrial PCs. It also provides industrial computer design, performance benchmarking, I/O port configuration, global edge connectivity, imaging & BIOS modification, and IPC build & test services.
The startup’s industrial edge computing products encompass Embedded Edge Computers, Industrial Panel PC & Displays, and IIoT Gateway Edge Devices. The solutions offer reliability, repeatability, and support for Industry 4.0 for OEMs, SIs, and operators.
Smart Industrial Automation (SIA) develops Accumulation Table
- Startup Name: SIA
- Founding Year: 2022
- Country: Bologna, Italy
- Technology: Lean Manufacturing
Italian startup SIA builds ASTUTA (Automatic Smart TUrning TAble), an accumulation table, to enhance manufacturing processes. Its product leverages lean manufacturing principles to enhance end-of-line productivity. SIA enhances part quality, optimizes resource use, extends production hours, and promotes environmental awareness.
Vivity AI facilitates Sustainable Manufacturing Process
- Startup Name: Vivity AI
- Founding Year: 2022
- Country: Pleasanton, CA, US
- Technology: Industrial AI, Process Optimization & Digitization
US startup Vivity AI offers an industrial AI platform to renewable and conventional energy industries. It addresses challenges in process optimization, workplace safety, product quality, and risk management.
Leveraging advanced AI technologies, the platform monitors and prevents unsafe events, digitizes processes, analyzes quality issues, and optimizes key metrics. The startup serves the industrial goods and manufacturing segments, providing AI products for automation, quality, safety, and maintenance.
Oinride builds Autonomous Electric Robots
- Startup Name: Oinride
- Founding Year: 2022
- Country: Tampere, Finland
- Technology: Ore Pass Inspection, 3D Mine Mapping
Finnish startup Oinride provides mobile robots to enhance safety, productivity, and cost-efficiency in industrial environments. Its product, AutoJoe, is a six-wheeled electric robot designed for off-road use. It streamlines the inspection process, provides early warnings, and reduces safety risks.
The startup also offers ControlWire, a customizable software suite for controlling, monitoring, and analyzing mobile robots and machinery. Oinride offers solutions to industries such as mining, nuclear waste, security, defense, and R&D, increasing the productivity of operations in harsh environments.
OTee facilitates Industrial Automation Engineering
- Startup Name: OTee
- Founding Year: 2022
- Country: Oslo, Norway
- Technology: Virtual Control System
Norwegian startup OTee provides an industrial-grade engineering platform to design and deploy virtual automation systems. The solution is deployable on any hardware. The startup’s virtual control systems enable remote monitoring, adjustments, and data-driven insights. This aids in real-time optimization and predictive maintenance while eliminating vendor lock-in.
The platform is built on open architectures, standards, and open-source principles for real-time control. Otee’s solution also supports role-based access control, allowing users to manage programs, data hierarchy, and sharing options.
SpatialThink builds 3D Digital Twins
- Startup Name: SpatialThink
- Founding Year: 2022
- Country: San Francisco, CA, US
- Technology: Immersive 3D Workforce Training
SpatialThink, a US-based startup, offers a digital twin management platform for workforce training and collaboration. Its platform allows users to capture and enhance spaces with 3D models, annotations, IoT devices and linked organizational data. Employing a no-code visual builder, it simulates real-world behavior, models operating procedures, and tracks skills.
The startup supports collaboration with 3D project visualization, seamless web/AR/VR experiences, and real-time video conferencing. SpatialThink addresses training, facilities management, and monitoring in built environment industries.
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Robco manufactures Modular Robots
- Startup Name: Robco
- Founding Year: 2020
- Country: Munich, Germany
- Technology: Manufacturing Automation
Robco is a German startup that develops modular robot kits and software-based automation solutions. The startup’s robot-as-a-service solution provides 2 to 7-axis robots with changeable modules for high uptime and flexibility. Besides, the startup’s robotic automation guide proposes the most suitable robot setup along with virtual training based on lidar scans of the production environment.
Moreover, the robots are plug-and-play, feature multiple sizes for mass customization, as well as use cloud-based analytics and interfaces. Robco’s robots thus find applications in automating a wide range of industrial tasks such as machine tending, palletizing, material handling, welding, and assembly.
i4Twins facilitates Digital Twin Creation
- Startup Name: i4Twins
- Founding Year: 2021
- Country: Oshawa, Canada
- Technology: Virtual Design, Simulation
i4Twins is a Canadian startup that makes a no-code digital twin platform to build, validate, simulate, and test industrial designs. It features status twins, operational twins, and simulation twins through an online browser-based electronic prototyping workspace.
Besides, the open platform supports multiple operating systems, uses artificial intelligence (AI), and contains a repository to share and manage designs and descriptions. As a result, i4Twins’ platform enables engineers and factory designers to create and experiment on different physical topologies.
iSIMplatform aids Factory Management
- Startup Name: iSIMplatform
- Founding Year: 2020
- Country: Istanbul, Turkey
- Technology: Smart Monitoring
Turkish startup iSIMplatform makes a software platform to digitize factory equipment and operations. It manages smart and integrated industrial systems through 2D and 3D maps and models. The platform’s other features include on-premise and cloud installation, fully web-based architecture, as well as adaptive and simultaneous updatable workflows. This way, the startup’s solution allows factory owners and operators to monitor equipment in real time and receive instant notifications and reports.
dataLobster monitors Industrial Equipment
- Startup Name: dataLobster
- Founding Year: 2021
- Country: Paris, France
- Technology: Plug&Play IoT Devices
French startup dataLobster offers Lobsters, plug & play IoT devices to monitor industrial equipment. The device captures real-time data on equipment behavior using sensors for vibration, magnetic field, acoustic, temperature, humidity, gyroscope, light, and air pressure. The startup’s solutions include data-as-a-service for data connectivity, PdM-as-a-service for predictive maintenance, and OpEx-as-a-service for performance and bottleneck analysis.
Moreover, advanced analytics, including machine learning algorithms tailored to specific asset types, detect anomalies and predict downtime and root causes. The platform forms a data lake for big data analytics, enhanced by digital signal processing and machine learning. These solutions improve operational performance, reduce downtime, and enhance maintenance strategies.
Xentara advances Smart Manufacturing
- Startup Name: Xentara
- Founding Year: 2020
- Country: Unterhancing Germany
- Technology: Factory Digitalization, Production Monitoring
German startup Xentara develops a smart manufacturing platform that integrates with common protocols, field buses, and programmable logic controllers (PLCs). It is installable on devices like PCs, Raspberry Pis, or even on the cloud as well as follows existing data streams and infrastructure. Additionally, the startup’s companion app for smartphones and tablets provides a wide range of visualization tools and parameters with live machine data for direct comparison.
Further, the startup’s edge control and computing system integrates into existing machines and collects data without influencing existing controls. Consequently, the startup’s solutions enable industries to digitize their operations and remotely monitor their equipment with minimal capital and operating expenditure.
Dfxbot simplifies Physical Storage Tracking
- Startup Name: Dfxbot
- Founding Year: 2020
- Country: Mumbai, India
- Technology: Inventory Transparency & Traceability
Indian startup Dfxbot creates IoT-based sensors for real-time inventory tracking and management. They leverage edge computing to communicate inventory data in real time with complete logs of all inventory transactions. Additionally, the startup offers an interactive dashboard with information on usage, cycle time, and inventory expenses. Dfxbot’s sensors improve clarity in the inventory cycle and cash flow to prevent production line stoppage.
MINT streamlines Cold Room Monitoring
- Startup Name: MINT
- Founding Year: 2020
- Country: Rovereto, Italy
- Technology: Food Storage, Cold Chains
Italian startup MINT provides IoT-based solutions to monitor the temperature inside storage systems. The startup’s product, MET, is an easy-to-install solution that periodically detects the temperature of storage systems and automatically records the values. MINT also offers a web interface to view historical temperature data and provide site inspections and assessments for ideal sensor placements.
Additionally, MET has customizable control thresholds for each storage system. It sends notifications and alarms about the same to the users via the app, email, or sms. MINT’s cold room monitoring solution finds applications in the farming, pharmaceutical, and food industries.
FloWide enables Smart Intralogistics
- Startup Name: FloWide
- Founding Year: 2021
- Country: Malvern,UK
- Technology: Material Flow Management, Shop Floor Management
FloWide is a UK-based startup that creates solutions to track vehicles within warehouses, yards, and shop floors. The startup’s forklift monitoring device provides improved visibility of forklift activities with continuous location tracking and indoor mapping with proximity sensors.
It also automates the tracking of work-in-progress (WIP) and inventory by installing additional sensors on forklift trucks. Further, Flowide’s low-code location intelligence software platform, Workbench, enables data scientists to extract operational insights from factory-level location data.
Mantis Robotics makes Collaborative Robots
- Startup Name: Mantis
- Founding Year: 2020
- Country: Pleasanton, California, US
- Technology: Production Automation
US-based startup Mantis Robotics develops responsive robots for flexible factories and warehouse environments. They use tactile sensing and safety motion technology to eliminate the need for fences and external safety devices. The fenceless robots utilize physical intelligence to increase productivity and flexibility in both structured and unstructured environments. Mantis Robotics’ solution makes work environments with humans and collaborative robots much safer while reducing the space occupied by current robotic systems.
WareBee delivers Warehouse Digital Twins
- Startup Name: WareBee
- Founding Year: 2021
- Country: Cambridge, UK
- Technology: Warehouse Monitoring, Compliance Tracking
UK-based startup WareBee offers WareBee Designer, a digital twin platform to automate decision-making processes in warehouse operations. It guides users through the process of creating a 2.5D model of warehouses. This includes floor, areas and zones, aisle types, access limits, racking profiles, and more.
Additionally, the platform’s models feature stock bay and location view, item information, and picking path sequence visualization. The platform’s warehouse analytics further provides warehouse managers with data-driven decisions while its warehouse auditing automates compliance monitoring and reduces risks.
Discover All Emerging Industry 4.0 Startups
The Industry 4.0 startups showcased in this report are only a small sample of all startups we identified through our data-driven startup scouting approach. Download our free Industry 4.0 Innovation Report for a broad overview of the industry or get in touch for quick & exhaustive research on the latest technologies & emerging solutions that will impact your company in 2025!
