Manufacturing Startups funded by Y Combinator (YC) 2026

REV1 automates the creation of manufacturing-ready 2D drawings from 3D CAD files. Mechanical engineers spend 25%+ of their time manually creating these drawings, a tedious but critical step for every manufactured part. REV1 reduces that process from hours to minutes, generating drawings with proper annotations and tolerancing so engineers can focus on design instead of documentation.

Kyten Technologies is building a factory to manufacture custom aerospace-grade battery packs. 100,000+ drones, submarines, and satellites are being built in the US, but the legacy supply chain can't keep up. During our six years at Starlink, we put 5,000+ battery packs into space. Now, we're bringing rapid development and volume production of aerospace-grade battery packs to the entire industry.

You’re wasting millions of dollars on custom industry robots that take months to implement. Today, robotic automation means redesigning your entire facility for the robot to work. You need to change the floor plan, adjust conveyor belts, and re-educate your staff. This is inefficient and unnecessary. With Servo7, you don’t have to do any of that. Automating with Servo7 is simple and fast, because our robots: 1) Deploy in existing operations 2) Learn from simple demonstrations 3) Keep improving on the job We have previously worked on autonomous defense systems, LLMs, autonomous driving, and hyperloops. Not just in the lab, but actually deploying them in the field. We’re already working with warehouses to automate their fulfillment. If you work in assembly, manufacturing, or logistics, email founders@servo7.com. We're onboarding our next partners now.

Allus builds next-gen vision foundation models that bring real intelligence to manufacturing. Enabling factories to see, understand, and improve production in real time.

Bravi is building the AI operating system for home-services businesses, using AI-powered customer communication as the wedge. We replace the front office (calls, chats, follow-ups) with AI agents that never miss a lead, then layer an internal AI copilot that understands products, pricing, and technical documentation. We started with fenestration (shutters, windows, garage doors), a large, complex vertical with no modern software, before expanding to adjacent trades. Bravi is already live with leading installers and manufacturers across Europe and the US, turning missed demand into revenue.

Our agents run hardware engineering tasks that normally take hours or days in just a few minutes, allowing engineers to process 100x more data and information. Our platform allows hardware engineers to orchestrate agents for tasks such as analyzing failures across entire test campaigns, pulling the right data and KPIs from their databases, checking how conditions (like temperature or load) affect performance and reliability, and then document findings in reports and dashboards.

China and Russia control the world’s critical minerals. We can produce Titanium, Magnesium, Aluminum, Zirconium & Hafnium in the U.S. more profitably than any existing process, and carbon neutrally via co-production. Carbochlorination is the primary process for producing critical metals like titanium, hafnium, and zirconium, and was once the standard for magnesium. The problem: conventional carbochlorination relies on purchasing carbon feedstocks, wastes valuable byproducts, and is highly CO₂-intensive. Duranium changes this with a novel reactor that recycles CO₂ emissions back into feedstock (CO) while generating a valuable co-product (bleaching agents). This closed loop slashes emissions and delivers Chinese-level metal pricing without subsidies — unlocking the full potential of carbochlorination for U.S. critical mineral production.

At Axial Composites Industries we are building the first non-planar manufacturing cell to manufacture carbon fiber parts at the speed of software for the upcoming autonomous age We believe in the following: • Aerospace and robotics manufacturing is going exponential • Thermoplastic composites will be the foundational materials for such applications Our mission is to equip the West with novel composite manufacturing methods that will act as the backbone of the skyrocketing demand in autonomous systems. Our method prints stronger and lighter parts by leveraging fiber anisotropy to our advantage. We can manufacture large composite structures in a day rather than weeks. This not only allows for faster iteration cycles, but it unlocks new possibilities for composite manufacturing.

Developing infrastructure to make robots useful in the real world

Nox Metals is an AI-powered metals supplier powering modern American manufacturing at scale. We are building automated factories that turn raw metal into production-ready material faster, cheaper, and more reliably than legacy service centers.

Photonium is building software to automate optical system design. We supercharge optics experts with intelligent tooling to reduce costs and deliver faster. We handle the full design stack — from optimization, verification, sourcing, to prototyping — for AR/VR, quantum, biotech, metrology/chip fab, LiDAR, and more.

Manufacturing pharmaceutical drugs faster and in the USA

Lumari enables supply chain teams to streamline operations with always-on agents that monitor, coordinate, and take action from sourcing to delivery.

We're building an AI powered platform for engineers that are building new robots and machines. We allow users to invent and modify machine designs in a matter of minutes, not years. Ayna and Andy, the co-founders, met during their time at Harvard and started this in 2024 as their programs were wrapping up. We're commercializing 10+ years research done by our team at Harvard and MIT on this space. Our team wrote the very first papers on applying GenAI and optimization algorithms to compose robots from parts and applying computational design to fine tune machine designs. We're bringing in our deep knowledge of modifying equipment and integrating it into factories keenly understanding what makes hardware hard. We take in parts under consideration, constraints and tasks at hand and our algorithm formulates and fine tunes from 100s of possible design options. All in a few clicks, so engineers can push hardware to market faster and companies can benefit from the inventions being done by their R&D teams. We already have two paying customers in the OEM and system integrator spaces. We are venture backed and supported by a GBP 2.5MM grant by ARIA, the UK Government's invention agency.

America once turned scientific breakthroughs into abundant products with unmatched speed, from the moving assembly line to the integrated circuits that launched the space age. In the last 50 years, we offshored that muscle and drifted into a services-only mindset. GDP rose, but everyday prosperity stalled. We don't accept this as final. We're building a future where advanced manufacturing is a national advantage again, creating good jobs, lowering costs, and turning frontier tech into things people can hold. The path forward is hard but clear: accelerate high-tech domestic manufacturing and make “built here” synonymous with speed, quality, and affordability. History points the way. When Ford industrialized assembly, cars became accessible to millions. When American fabs mastered process control, computing leapt from labs into every pocket. Progress happens when invention meets production at scale. We're forging deep partnerships with hard-tech teams who need reliable, quick-turn precision, so they can prototype faster, launch sooner, and build more here. If you want to help restore American productive power and enjoy the satisfaction of shipping real hardware, reach out: founders@foundation-industries.com

GroundControl builds mission-critical software for manufacturers in highly-regulated industries (aerospace, defense, medical) Our core product automates lengthy, complex, and regulated quality documentation in aerospace manufacturing. As an example, the Boeing 777 is made up of over 3 million parts sourced from manufacturers around the world. These manufacturers must complete quality documentation for every part on this aircraft (machined parts, printed circuit boards, wire harnesses, assemblies, and more). GroundControl helps manufacturers complete this required documentation accurately, in minutes instead of days.

LineWise is building an AI assistant for manufacturing teams to operate and resolve production issues, from defects to breakdowns. LineWise automatically extracts frontline know-how from live video recordings, turning them into structured SOPs and training guides. It also ingests generated SOPs, machine manuals, and past breakdown logs to suggest the most probable root causes when issues occur. Operators receive step-by-step guided troubleshooting, and as they confirm outcomes, LineWise learns from each resolution - converting every fix into a reusable playbook and proactively recommending preventive actions to cut future downtime.

Inversion Semiconductor is developing the next-generation chip fabrication machine, to create the most powerful chips 15x faster. Our vision is to reshore advanced chip fabrication capabilities in the West. We're building a lithography machine. Lithography uses light to pattern circuit features on silicon. We're scaling transistors to their physical limits by shrinking particle accelerators 1000x, to create a high power light source. Using our light source we will double transistor density for a given numerical aperture and 3x throughput.

Optifye.ai does AI performance monitoring for factory workers We place cameras in factories and use vision AI to tell supervisors who's working and who's not in real time. The shop floor has historically been a black box. With Optifye, manufacturing companies can now accurately measure worker output and boost efficiency!

We are making reusable satellites for zero-g manufacturing. Our first full orbital recovery mission is set to launch in April 2026.

Paragon is the AI growth engine for distributors and manufacturers, freeing up staff and growing revenue on autopilot.

Helping manufacturers and distributors automate the process of moving RFQs, invoices, and POs from their inboxes to their ERPs.

Forge Automation runs software enabled factories that deliver custom metal parts in four days or less. Instead of mechanical engineers having to wait two to three weeks for their low volume CNC parts, they can simply upload a CAD model on our platform and we will ship it out in four days or less. We aim to give mechanical engineers the "Amazon experience" for custom metal parts.

Mobius is the safe spot market for electronic components like microcontrollers and capacitors. We help electronics manufacturers buy and sell chips quickly, safely & at market prices.

Loombotic is automating wire harness manufacturing.

At Tiny, we’re building a new kind of ERP system for factories where AI agents automate repetitive workflows. Made for the four million factories still primarily relying on Excel. LLMs now unlock their troves of siloed unstructured data. We see a massive opportunity to build a compound startup and, beyond that, tap into network effects to unlock just-in-time manufacturing across entire supply chains.

camfer is the AI CAD tool. Now, engineers can create parametric designs with natural language.

Autumn Labs delivers a developer-friendly platform for monitoring and managing modern manufacturing lines. Seamlessly integrating with robotic stations—automated test stations, robotic assembly cells, and industrial arms—it ensures full traceability, live data monitoring, and secure data transport. We prioritize streamlining factory operations, boosting production quality, and preventing supply chain disruptions, all while offering an effortless onboarding experience for engineers and manufacturers.

Diode automates circuit board design. We work with hardware companies to get them the PCBs they need, fast.

Distributors & Manufacturers use Soff to grow revenue through Soff's sales agents that process quotes, orders and handles all communication with customers, co-workers & suppliers.

Bucket Robotics builds deployable computer vision systems for manufacturing — without labeling, long pilots, or fragile rules. We turn CAD and sample data into production-ready vision models that run on existing cameras and edge hardware. No manual labeling. No cold-start problem. Models deploy in minutes and adapt as parts, defects, and lines change. Our roots are in self-driving cars (Argo AI, Uber ATG, Stack AV), where we learned how to ship perception systems that operators trust in messy, real-world environments. We’re applying that playbook to factories: robust sensing, fast iteration, and tooling engineers actually enjoy using. Manufacturers struggle with inspection because parts are too variable for rules-based vision and too expensive to inspect by hand. Legacy systems are rigid, hardware-locked, and slow to customize. We take the opposite approach: software-first vision that fits into existing automation and scales across SKUs, facilities, and workflows. American Manufacturing is in the middle of a $700B automation push — but quality is still a trust problem. Bucket Robotics is building the vision infrastructure that lets factories automate inspection with confidence.

Distro is the all-in-one AI-powered sales platform for counter staff and inside sales at industrial wholesale distributors (HVAC/R, plumbing, electrical, and more).

Vista designs, finances, installs, and manages energy storage and solar at commercial, industrial, and multifamily properties for $0 upfront, helping businesses save up to 30% on their energy bills. The founding team previously worked at SpaceX, Rocket Lab, NASA and Firefly.

Our mission is to empower every manufacturer, no matter their scale, to invent and build anything using intelligent robots. Today’s industrial robots are fast but "blind". They struggle with any task that isn't perfectly repetitive. We are building the eyes and brain (a proprietary vision system and AI model) that allow industrial robots to see, reason, and perform complex work with sub-millimeter accuracy and the adaptability of a human expert. We are witnessing the start of a new industrial revolution: an era of advanced manufacturing powered by AI and robotics. We aim to lead this shift by putting these tools into the hands of every manufacturer, ensuring the power to invent and build at scale isn’t a privilege of the few.

DraftAid is the world's first generative AI for CAD manufacturing drawings, akin to GitHub Copilot but for CAD. It drastically shortens drawing creation time, turning hours into seconds. Every product that is manufactured - from construction to aerospace, automotive, durable goods, and electronics—relies on drawings. Currently, engineers and designers painstakingly make these essential drawings manually. Draftaid streamlines this process saving teams millions in time and quality. The idea was born out of Abdullah's experience as a mechanical design team member, where he created thousands of drawings and longed for a more efficient process. Partnering with Tahsin, a neighbour with a PhD in AI, and Mohammed, a seasoned engineering VP with experience in construction software, they turned the dream into reality. Since their launch in August, DraftAid has engaged customers through targeted outreach and word-of-mouth, securing paid pilots with subsequent contracts valued at $150,000. Be a part of ushering in the new era of CAD designs!

Mandel surfaces supply chain disruptions and supplier updates with email AI. We use AI agents that proactively extract data and email suppliers for order updates, building a real-time self updating supply chain source of truth.

Zelos Cloud is the data platform for mission-critical systems that enables teams to observe, control, and test systems from prototype to production. The platform connects across entire ecosystems, capturing data from many protocols, enabling remote command execution, and facilitating team collaboration through shared workspaces and real-time annotations. By integrating data collection, processing, and visualization into one seamless pipeline, Zelos Cloud eliminates complexity and breaks down silos between engineering, operations, and quality teams.

The future of mRNA therapeutics is hampered by manufacturing challenges and unless solved, its exciting potential may never be realised. Sensible enables the next generation of mRNA medicines by turning living cells into factories producing abundant, highly stable and non-immunogenic mRNA in a scalable and cost-effective way.

Thread simplifies the business processes for manufacturing companies. Upload your company documents to our secure platform, collaborate seamlessly across your organization to respond to vendor questionnaires.

Synvivia applies chemical control over cell behavior. This allows us to optimize biomanufacturing of high-value biopharmaceutical products.

Proglix is a marketplace for small and medium manufacturers to buy metal and steel raw materials in Indonesia. With our platform, customers can easily order domestic and import raw materials with cheaper price, no minimum order quantities, 2x faster in SLA and real time inventory stock.

Cerrion helps manufacturers automatically detect, understand and eliminate problems on their production lines using video-based Computer Vision. Our AI leverages standard CCTV cameras and learns how a manufacturing process looks like when things are going well and can automatically detect and track problems in real-time. For example, one of our customers, a Pepsi supplier producing 500 bottles per minute now automatically detects and reacts to a fallen bottle before it starts blocking their production line.

At Raven, we are building AI assistants for manufacturing plants which can offer intelligent assistance for day-to-day operations like training, job planning, troubleshooting, reporting and also helps with real-time analytics — all while seamlessly integrating with your existing systems. We’re taking decades of manufacturing expertise and combining it with AI to solve real operational problems. We’re a small, focused team working to make industrial operations safer, smarter, and more efficient.

Artificial Intelligence that converts manufacturing drawings into costing quotations in minutes, not weeks.

Atomic's mission is to replicate high-skill trade knowledge of tool and die makers into AI that powers new manufacturing systems which are orders of magnitude more productive.

We bring Tesla autonomous manufacturing to every automaker and other producers. At Tesla, we were the core autonomous factory team and we’re now building the smart cameras and robotic guidance tools that provided the main advantages at Tesla

⚡️Olympian manufactures timeless, art-deco electric vehicles. We challenge today’s mundane, over-standardized car designs produced by the traditional automotive industry. ► Olympian EVs are powered by an open, modular EV architecture. We are pioneering a new modular production model in the U.S., delivering 85–90% reductions in tooling and machinery costs, and achieved 60–80% faster production-lead-times compared to legacy automakers in the U.S. 💸 Revenue Backlog: $61M+ 🚗 Number of Orders: 790+ 🏭 Production Capacity: 2,400 units in 2026 ✅ Backed by: YC, NVIDIA, Climate Capital, Mobility Vision, Amazon AWS, Soma & Collaborative. -- Olympian has two pillars: 1) Art-deco, aesthetic, but simple electric cars 2) Modular EV architecture that enables rapid, cost-efficient production. Olympian rejects today's mundane and over-standardized car experience. We challenge the 40-year status-quo in automotive design, and bring aesthetic, simplicity and color back to the cars. We are manufacturing electric vehicles with our innovative 'modular' vehicle & drivetrain architecture (MVDS), providing Olympian with strong cost and lead-time advantages compared to legacy automakers like Tesla and Ford. Olympian is disrupting 120+ years old automotive industry and targeting to capture 7% market share in the U.S. automotive market by 2030. Olympian developed a fully-decoupled, modular, EV drivetrain system (eMVDS) that provides a 'Lego-like' vehicle architecture. Built on 4-core-hardware and 2-core software modules, Olympus eMVDS platform unlocks 80% reduction in tooling & machinery costs and built ~60% faster production lead time.

Look around you - everything you see that was made with wood a designer conceived and then a woodworker has made. Most of the time, something went painfully wrong. 60% of the $1.4T global woodworking market is serviced by small businesses with inefficient, manual processes - Cutr is digitising their workflow. This market is massive, chaotic and surprisingly manual. Woodworkers are mostly offline, hard to find and even harder to vet. They need help with critical back-of-house jobs like quoting and capacity planning. Customers have no idea where to find them and need help asking the right questions & providing the right info to get their job produced correctly. Cutr solves discovery, pricing, payments and workflow for the woodworking market. Our users simply upload a file, accept an instant quote, and get their parts delivered. To make that possible we do the heavy lifting: filechecks, automated quoting, matchmaking, creating job packages, tracking changes & updates, logistics and payments. Cutr saves time, cuts costs and ensures quality with a smooth workflow.

IoTFlows combines AI-powered hardware and software to give manufacturers real-time visibility into machine utilization, downtime, and workflow efficiency. Our plug-and-play platform analyzes data, generates actionable insights, and automates maintenance and operational tasks, helping teams optimize performance and achieve ROI in less than a month. Trusted by companies like Parker Hannifin, IoTFlows delivers high-margin, subscription-based value that scales seamlessly.

Auto parts retailers get product data from hundreds of manufacturers that is inaccurate and inconsistent, often with big gaps in key values. They currently have a team of "catalog managers" who are required to process and enhance this data line by line, resulting in a week to months long lag between receiving product data and actually being able to start generating revenue from those products. Versable leverages AI to scan the web for tens of millions of auto parts listings, and uses a fine-tuned LLM with RAG to instantly process, enhance, and transform data. With just a part number, Versable is able to generate market-ready titles, product descriptions, and specs, in any format that's needed.