In recent years, the EU has introduced several new requirements to make products more sustainable and circular. At its core, there is a law requiring the entire union to be climate neutral by 2050 – along with specific directives on emissions trading and sustainable design.
One company aiming to help industry make the transition is Encube – a Swedish deeptech company that has been around since 2021 but is now entering the launch phase. The company has developed a new AI platform that, among other things, automates manual tasks for manufacturing companies in the automotive, technology, and energy sectors.
Cutting costs for manufacturers
It's not just about sustainability, it's also about cutting costs.
"Developing hardware is about balancing how a product should function, look, and what it should cost to manufacture. In Europe, we're strong on the first two, but our manufacturing expertise is disappearing," says Hugo Nordell who is co-founder and CEO of the company in a press comment.
He – who founded Encube together with Johnny Bigert from Skype and Klarna – saw the problems during his years in industrial and energy companies.
"At Sandvik and Aker, I saw how quickly costs could spiral and competitiveness could be lost when production wasn't considered from the start. We founded Encube to change that, to help teams make better decisions earlier," he says.
According to the company, their platform has already been tested and validated by companies like Volvo, satellite manufacturer Beyond Gravity, and Scania. Now, as they launch, they do so with a substantial investment: 215 million kronor from Kinnevik, Inventure, and US-based Promus Ventures.
"We are incredibly proud to have been among the first investors in Encube. The team's progress has been as impressive as their ability to deliver. We are convinced that Encube has the potential to do for the industry what Figma did for web design and fundamentally change how hardware is developed," says Adrian Arnsvik Bjurefalk, principal at Inventure in a press comment.