Swiss Startup Forgis Raises $4.5M in 36 Hours to Build "Windows for Factories"

Lightning-Fast Round in Tough Climate

Forgis, a Zurich-based startup building edge software for automotive and advanced manufacturing sectors, raised $4.5M in pre-seed funding led by redalpine, with participation from Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Arduino, and other investors from deep tech and manufacturing. The round closed in just 36 hours after the team received five term sheets, three from US investors and two from European firms. "We closed in 36 hours because the conviction was mutual," says Gianmarco Hodel, Investment Manager at redalpine. Founded by Federico Martelli, Camilla Mazzoleni, and Riccardo Maggioni, the company recently rebranded from Xelerit to Forgis, a name derived from "forge + genesis." The rebrand signals a strategic shift towards building what founder Mazzoleni describes as "Windows for factories," positioning the company as foundational infrastructure rather than just another automation tool.

Competing Against Giants with Software Intelligence

Forgis connects machines, PLCs, and robots across brands into a unified layer that adapts and evolves production logic, creating self-improving systems capable of diagnosing and solving inefficiencies autonomously, and the company is already working with IBM and has projects underway in the automotive and advanced manufacturing sectors. The company's platform integrates with existing systems from vendors such as Siemens and ABB, making complex industrial environments more flexible and efficient. The industrial automation software market represents a massive opportunity. The Industrial Automation Software Market is expected to reach USD 40.83 billion in 2025 and grow at a CAGR of 7.90% to reach USD 59.71 billion by 2030. Traditional players like Siemens, ABB, Rockwell Automation, and Schneider Electric dominate the hardware layer, but Forgis targets a different opportunity: the orchestration layer that sits above legacy equipment.

Europe's Manufacturing Comeback Strategy

In early pilots with European manufacturers, Forgis has reported configuration times reduced by up to 60%, downtime by 30%, and throughput increases of around 20%. The startup's mission extends beyond efficiency gains to a broader industrial strategy. "We're bringing production back to the West by adding an intelligent software layer to existing factory ecosystems," said Riccardo Maggioni, CTO of Forgis, adding "This way, reshoring becomes the smarter, not the costlier, choice." The team deliberately chose to stay in Europe despite stronger US offers. According to Mazzoleni's LinkedIn announcement, the decision reflects confidence in European manufacturing's potential for reindustrialization through intelligence rather than protectionism. According to the company, during the last decade, China's industrial robot stock grew from 200k to 2 million, 567 per 10 thousand workers surpassing Germany, the US, and the UK combined.

What's Next

With the new capital, Forgis plans to expand operations and accelerate development efforts. The company is hosting a public chess game with their robot at ETH Polyterrasse, which has already reached over 2 million people online. The event serves as both a demonstration of their robotic intelligence capabilities and a recruitment signal to the European tech ecosystem.