Daedalus: Karlsruhe AI ​​startup raises €19.5 million

Residents of Karlsruhe are building factories in which certain parts can be manufactured autonomously using artificial intelligence and robots. The funds allocated for this come mainly from the United States of America.

Karlsruhe-based AI startup Daedalus has raised the equivalent of €19.5 million (US$21 million) as part of a Series A funding round. The company made the announcement on Thursday morning. The round is led by California-based VC firm NGP Capital. Existing investors such as New York investment firm Addition and Khosla Ventures from California also invested again, a statement said. With the new capital, Daedalus plans to expand production capacity in Germany and invest in product development and recruitment.

The CEO is a former OpenAI employee

The AI ​​startup was founded in 2020 by two former directors of robotics at OpenAI – the company behind Chat GPT. Daedalus builds factories whose production process is controlled using artificial intelligence software and automated through the use of robots. The company explains that production should be shortened to “days instead of weeks.” Daedalus can be used in many industries. “From microchips to biomedical components, the production of ‘tailored parts’ is becoming possible,” explains founder and CEO Jonas Schneider, promising “breakthrough reliability” and “ten times the efficiency.”

Since its founding, Daedalus has raised $14.2 million (about €13.2 million) in seed funding. In December 2020, after six months of development, the startup said it had made the first micropart “autonomously and without human intervention.” The startup's first factory became operational in the summer of 2021, followed by its second factory about a year later.

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