Luminovo raises money to reduce waste in electronics manufacturing – TechCrunch

For the $5 trillion electronics industry, electronics manufacturers, Munich-based Luminovo builds a SaaS solution that brings together the full material and production costing process. The company is aiming to upend an industry that’s been mired in the previous millennium for a long time. Replacing manual parts of the process with automated tools, it enables the folks creating products to focus on what they do best, rather than running an error-prone endless tennis match of Excel documents.

One of the big shifts in electronics has been the global supply chain, which is still limping along since 2020. Without live insights and projections for what is about to happen, electronic engineers are fumbling in the dark, at best facing delays, at worst facing expensive redesigns or product cancellations.

Printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturers use Luminovo to combine the visualization, analysis and adoption of PCBs in one workflow. The company maintains this helps decreases quoting time and increases efficiency in the design and manufacturing processes. The suite also benefits original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) — Luminovo gives users relevant component information (lifecycle, availability, lead time, price and compliance of parts) in real time and before prototypes are built and money is invested. It stands to reason that this dramatically minimizes the risk of redesigns on the way to production and the risk of shortages throughout the product lifecycle.

“We’re on a mission to rethink the entire electronics value chain to make it more efficient, effective and impactful. It’s infuriating that the manufacturers and designers that are building the products that will change the world are wholly reliant on Excel spreadsheets and 20th-century communication tools to take their projects from design to production,” Sebastian Schaal, founder of Luminovo, said in an email to TechCrunch. “We’re committed to having a lasting positive impact on this industry with Luminovo.”

Luminovo raised €11 million (which, to the chagrin of everyone moving money in and out of Europe, is about $11 million, as the EUR and USD hits parity for the first time since 2002). A source familiar with the deal noted that the valuation for the round was around $40 million. The round was led by Chalfen Ventures with participation by Tencent, Verve Ventures and Khadjavi Capital Partners, and existing investors La Famiglia and Cherry Ventures.