Montreal Startup Raises $110M to Simplify Factory Automation

Factory automation is about to get a whole lot simpler, and 4,000 manufacturers worldwide are already seeing the difference.

Montreal-based Vention just raised $110 million to expand its groundbreaking approach to industrial robots. The company is solving a problem that's plagued manufacturing for decades: automation systems that require specialized expertise, take months to install, and leave factories with incompatible equipment they can't easily update or repair.

Vention's solution treats factory automation like modern software. Their Zero-Shot Automation platform lets manufacturers design, program, and deploy robotic systems through a cloud-based interface that works across different robot brands without complex integration work.

"Manufacturers no longer want automation that requires deep expertise and long commissioning cycles," said CEO Etienne Lacroix. "They want automation that works as intuitively and reliably as modern software."

The results speak for themselves. Vention has deployed over 25,000 machines across 4,000 factories in 25 different industries. Their AI tools can shrink project timelines from months to days, and 40% of their revenue now comes from companies worth over $1 billion.

The funding, which includes investment from NVIDIA's venture capital arm, will accelerate four key areas. Vention plans to serve more enterprise clients, advance their physical AI research, deepen their technology offerings, and expand from North America into Europe.

Physical AI combines artificial intelligence with robotics to handle real-world manufacturing tasks. Vention is focusing on making these systems 99% reliable at human speeds while keeping costs around $150,000 per deployment, making automation accessible to mid-sized manufacturers operating multiple shifts.

The company is seeing strong demand in defense manufacturing, data center equipment, and end-of-line packaging. Their systems are already assembling cooling equipment for major tech companies and helping Fortune 500 firms modernize older facilities with flexible, quick-to-deploy automation.

The Ripple Effect

Vention's approach addresses a challenge that's held back American manufacturing for years: bringing production back home. As companies explore reshoring, they need automation systems that work quickly and don't require armies of specialized technicians.

By standardizing how factories deploy robots, Vention is making it feasible for more companies to automate domestically. Their platform gives manufacturers access to the same data models and control systems across all their equipment, eliminating the patchwork of incompatible systems that previously made scaling automation prohibitively complex.

The company now employs 310 people and is actively hiring across sales, project management, and AI research roles. With partners like NVIDIA announcing new products soon, Vention is positioned to keep pushing factory automation into territory that seemed impossible just a year ago.

Manufacturing is getting smarter, faster, and more accessible, one robot at a time.