The global manufacturing landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by the imperative for greater agility, efficiency, and resilience. While emerging economies often build state-of-the-art "greenfield" factories from the ground up, established industrial powerhouses in the West face the complex challenge of modernizing their existing "brownfield" facilities. This intricate task, often performed during ongoing operations, is notoriously costly, time-consuming, and prone to errors, hindering their ability to adapt to rapid market shifts and competitive pressures.
Addressing this critical industry bottleneck, Düsseldorf-based DeepTech startup RIIICO has announced a significant milestone, securing €4.3 million in Seed funding. The round was led by PropTech fund Pi Labs, with participation from seed + speed Ventures, WaVe-X, Earlybird Venture Capital, and Volvo Cars Tech Fund.
Founded in 2021, RIIICO has developed an AI-based software platform designed to empower industrial companies to digitally model, redesign, and rapidly adapt their established factories to accommodate new products or processes. The core objective is to cultivate production sites that are inherently more efficient, agile, and resilient. RIIICO's solution dramatically streamlines the retrofitting of factories, transforming a traditionally cumbersome process into a collaborative decision-making tool for all stakeholders, from plant managers to suppliers. This innovative approach reportedly accelerates process redesigns by a factor of four and significantly speeds up the launch of new products.
At the heart of RIIICO's technical prowess lies its proprietary AI, which automatically detects machines, equipment, and building infrastructures within LiDAR scans. This sophisticated capability enables the generation of a precise 3D digital twin of the entire factory. With this digital replica, teams can simulate, assess, and implement diverse scenarios quickly and securely, akin to "building with LEGO bricks." The efficacy of this solution has already been rigorously proven in the automotive sector, where it was successfully deployed last year to install electric vehicle production lines within factories previously dedicated to combustion engines. Teams leveraging RIIICO’s solution gained access to highly realistic 3D data, leading to a reported reduction in costly on-site revisions and establishing new benchmarks for quality and efficiency.
Felix Fink, CEO of RIIICO, emphasized the proven value of their solution: “With our lead users in the automotive sector, we’ve already proven the value of our solution under extreme cost pressures and high-quality demands. With our new investors, spearheaded by lead investor Pi Labs, we aim to enhance the connection between real factory environments and digital models, boosting flexibility to strengthen industry resilience and competitiveness.”
The €4.3 million in Seed funding will be strategically deployed to further expand RIIICO's AI platform, developing new applications that unlock even greater utility from digital twins. This investment underscores the growing global demand for advanced industrial digitalization solutions, particularly as supply chains are re-evaluated and the imperative for domestic manufacturing resilience intensifies. RIIICO's technology positions it as a pivotal enabler for established manufacturers seeking to maintain their competitive edge in an increasingly dynamic and challenging global economy.
