‘Industry 4.0’ — a term first coined in 2011 — describes the step change from manual industrial machinery to the all-singing, all-beeping factories of the future. Fully connected factories can drive efficiency, sustainability, faster time to market, and true mass customisation, and yet the supposed ‘big bang’ has not yet truly materialised.
At Dawn, we believe we’re still in the foothills of the Industry 4.0 opportunity. Today there is a renaissance in home-grown manufacturing in both the US and Europe, with $196bn invested in the US and at least 500 mid-large factories built in Europe in recent years.
There is a huge opportunity in the emergence of new and natively connected factories but the opportunity in existing factories, many of which have been operating without pause for decades is enormous. To put it into perspective, we estimate that at least 73,000 mid-size manufacturing businesses in Europe have yet to fully embrace the potential of Industry 4.0, which translates into up to $3 trillion a year for digital transformation investment and they are ripe for transformation.
Transforming a factory is no mean feat and requires significant investment and a great deal of time. We’re excited about the many innovative companies that have recently emerged to tackle this challenge head-on – in particular those solving
- Onboarding, enabling and protecting a changing workforce
- Maximising production throughput with process design and planning automation
- Managing complex and opaque supply chains
- Laying the infrastructure for a data-driven factory
For more details, and to read some of the top scaling tips shared by manufacturing executives, founders, and researchers, read our three-part series:
- Part I — Introduction to Industry 4.0
- Part II — Deep Dive into the Themes we’re most excited about
- Part III — How to scale successfully — Lessons from the experts
The companies in the above market map are addressing inefficiencies across the manufacturing process, and paving the way for the digital transformation of the factory. We’re delighted to see this breadth and depth of innovation across the continent and are interested in hearing from companies in this space. If you’re a founder looking for support, please get in touch with: evgenia@dawncapital.com, mina@dawncapital.com, daniela@dawncapital.com and skye@dawncapital.com.
