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This startup helps Microsoft and P&G make their products more sustainable. Check out the 14-slide pitch deck Makersite used to raise $17.5 million.
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- A startup that helps companies build more sustainable products just raised $17.5 million.
- Germany-based Makersite automates lifecycle analysis using ‘digital twin’ technology.
- We got an exclusive look at the 14-slide pitch deck it used to raise the Series A round.
A German startup that enables companies to assess the sustainability of their products before going to market just landed 18 million euros (around $17.5 million) in its first institutional raise.
Stuttgart-based Makersite, which was founded in 2018, allows companies to understand and improve the environmental impact, cost, and risk of products throughout their lifecycle.
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Makersite uses AI to create software-based replicas of product designs using technology known as digital twins. Digital twins allow businesses to test and iterate the makeup of a product, its supply chain, production, and end-of-life before it exists in the real world.
Neil D’souza, the Makersite founder and CEO, said his SaaS tool will help businesses design products with sustainability in mind from the get-go.
India-born D’souza grew up cooking and eating potato chips at home but remembered there was “waste everywhere” when packaged goods first hit the shelves. “We introduced a way to eat but we didn’t figure out how to deal with the waste,” he told Insider.
D’souza said he wanted to help solve the waste issue with Makersite by making designers, engineers, and procurement chiefs aware of the impact their products had on society.
The company’s platform uses 140 existing material and supply chain databases to automatically map product designs and build digital twins that let users see how products are made, used and disposed of – essentially automating lifecycle analysis and carbon accounting.
Makersite will also generate reports and suggest alternative designs for specific outcomes, be it a cheaper or more sustainable product.
It can be used in the very early stages of product design, D’souza said. The platform can take a list of “ingredients” and tell users where materials can be bought and how the product can be manufactured.
Makersite targets consumer products, electronics, construction, and chemical companies as customers. The startup also has an API so customers can embed Makersite’s tool into their own, existing platforms. It is already working with Microsoft, Vestas, Cummins, and Procter & Gamble, it said.
Hitachi Ventures, the venture capital arm of Japanese multinational Hitachi, and Silicon Valley-based fund Translink Capital coled the round. European VCs Kompas and Planet A also participated.
The cash will be use to bolster headcount from 30 to 110 in the next 12 months, with a focus on sales and marketing. D’souza bootstrapped the company until now but opted to call the round a Series A due to where Makersite is in its journey.
Check out the 14-slide pitch deck Makersite used to raise the fresh funds below.
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