Stockholm-based IPercept has raised $16.5 million in a Series A round co-led by Isogon Ventures and 2150, with existing investors Luminar Ventures, RunwayFBU, J12 Ventures, and AI.Fund also participating. Spun out of KTH Royal Institute of Technology, IPercept develops patented plug-and-play technology that uses a single device to capture micrometre-scale motion from CNC machines and turn it into component-level condition data without connecting to the machine controller or IT network. The company will use the new funding to expand into the US, make its first local hires, and build out its data platform with additional AI applications aimed at bringing predictive maintenance and real-time machine intelligence to discrete-part manufacturing. Its technology is already deployed across more than 30 manufacturers, including Airbus, Bosch, Hitachi Energy, Scania, and Volvo.
IPercept has built the data layer that can unlock physical AI for the world’s largest existing robotics segment: its plug-and-play technology unlocks uptime, productivity, and quality, while engaging teams via an all-in-one CNC machine intelligence suite.
Already live across facilities for over 30 manufacturers including Airbus, Bosch, Hitachi Energy, Scania, and Volvo, IPercept unlocks peak machine performance and allows better decisions on high-quality data analysis, producing a value loop of less unplanned downtime and improved overall equipment effectiveness. IPercept already has traction in the industrial service company sector, with customers including Konecranes, Quant, DynaMate, and MTT deploying the technology as the basis of their own monitoring services.
Operating as an AI assistant for production and machine maintenance, IPercept’s AI-driven analytics solutions for CNC machines give a level of detail not previously available to manufacturers – clearing an industrial blindspot that had existed since the 1940s, now solved by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology spinout.
IPercept founder and CEO Karoly Szipka: “CNC machine tools make every other machine on Earth, and until now almost nobody could see inside them while they run. The question we set out to answer was how to make the most important machine in the physical world legible to software and AI. That took a new measurement principle, five years of research, and four years of real-world data. We are ready to bring it to every factory that needs it.”
IPercept’s technology reads the machine’s own motion and a single patented IPercept device mounted on the moving part of a CNC machine (any brand, model, or age) converts micrometre-scale motion into component-level condition data, with no connection to the machine controller or the customer’s IT network. Manufacturers see which components are wearing, how quickly, and exactly what to do before production stops: until now, operators did not have this visibility.
Isogon Ventures General Partner Paco Riberas: “Industry is meant to run like a well-oiled machine, and unplanned CNC downtime is where that ideal breaks. IPercept is the most seamless, accurate answer the space has produced – and exactly what critical industries need.”
CNC machines are inputs into huge industries (e.g. automotive, aerospace, electronics, medical devices, machinery, energy, defence) and critical to the global economy. CNC monitoring stood still for 25 years as no scalable data access for these machines existed. For companies not running IPercept technology, it still takes two days of manual work to fully understand why a single machine failed, while average machine efficiency has remained stuck at just 50–60% for decades.
Industry needs to quickly shift the world’s manufacturing centre of gravity back to the West, shaped by ever changing geopolitics and commercial objectives. At the centre of that problem sit CNC machine tools – the precision systems used to manufacture the components that underpin modern life, from aircraft engines and medical implants to cars, electronics and energy infrastructure – with an installed base worth roughly $1 trillion worldwide.
They are also the least observed asset in the factory: the machine controller commands motion but does not measure mechanical condition, and vibration sensors were designed for pumps and motors, not machines with dozens of interacting components.
2150 Partner Rahul Parekh: “The next wave of AI will change how the physical world operates. IPercept is bringing intelligence directly to industrial equipment, helping manufacturers understand their equipment in real time, improve productivity and extend the life of critical assets. That is exactly the kind of technology we want to back at 2150, and we’re excited to support Karoly and his team as they scale into the US.”
Read the orginal article: https://arcticstartup.com/ipercept-raises-16-5m-series-a/
