Cologne-based United Manufacturing Hub (UMH), an open-source industrial knowledge administration platform for contemporary factories, at present introduced a €5 million funding spherical to speed up its mission to construct the foundational knowledge layer for world manufacturing.
The spherical was led by KOMPAS VC, with participation from seed + pace Ventures, Sustainable Future Ventures, and Archimedes New Ventures. Distinguished business angels additionally participated on this spherical, together with Jan Oberhauser (Founder & CEO of n8n) and Jeff Hammerbacher (Founding father of Cloudera).
Alexander Krüger, CEO and co-founder of UMH, stated, “Each manufacturing facility runs on decades-old software program – Knowledge is trapped in proprietary protocols, siloed by distributors, lacking the context that actual use instances and AI rely on. We’re constructing the open-source knowledge infrastructure layer that lastly makes industrial knowledge out there within the amount and high quality it must be – prepared for what comes subsequent.
“This spherical lets us double down: wider connectivity, larger scale, pool and a product that works for knowledge engineers and store ground engineers alike.”
In line with UMH, the important thing problem limiting digitalisation and the deployment of AI in manufacturing lies on the knowledge layer. Knowledge is usually locked inside proprietary methods and dispersed throughout machines, processes, and purposes, which makes the modernisation of producing almost unattainable.
Based in 2021 by Alexander Krüger (CEO) and Jeremy Theocharis (CTO), claims to unify industrial knowledge right into a real-time knowledge hub, referred to as Unified Namespace, changing point-to-point integrations with a scalable, interoperable construction.
“The platform connects machines, sensors, and IT methods by way of standardised interfaces, then cleans and contextualises their knowledge – making a single supply of fact that any software can use with out customized integration work. On prime of this basis, UMH delivers ready-to-use capabilities: operational KPIs, power and useful resource monitoring, situation monitoring, alerting, and industrial AI purposes,” UMH defined within the press launch.
The contemporary capital will likely be used to bolster the corporate’s open-source platform, develop the engineering group, speed up product growth, together with broader connectivity, superior knowledge modelling and AI brokers. UMH additionally plans to increase collaborations with consulting and know-how companions to speed up adoption throughout Europe’s industrial base, in addition to strengthen the organisation in each engineering and go-to-market positions.
“In areas like ERP, CRM, or HR administration, billion-dollar firms have emerged. In digital manufacturing, such a participant continues to be lacking. That’s precisely our mission: We wish to construct the world’s main Industrial Knowledge Firm,” stated Niklas Hebborn, Chief Industrial Officer at UMH and former Companion at Freigeist Capital, the place he was an early pre-Seed investor in UMH.
Among the firms utilizing UMH to digitise their factories embrace HiPP, Edeka, and Böllhoff.

