German AI Startup Makersite Raises €60 Million to Boost Sustainable Product Design
Stuttgart-based Makersite has secured €60 million in Series B funding to expand its AI-driven platform that supports manufacturers in making sustainable and informed decisions during product design. The funding round was co-led by Lightrock and Partech, with SE Ventures also participating. Existing investors from Makersite’s Series A round, including Hitachi Ventures, KOMPAS VC, Translink Capital, and Planet A, joined this latest investment.
Neil D’Souza, CEO and Founder of Makersite, highlighted that this investment is a key milestone for the company’s mission to make sustainable product design standard practice. The funds will accelerate platform development, strengthen integrations with technology partners, and scale Makersite’s global reach.
How Makersite Supports Product Development
Founded in 2018, Makersite uses AI to clean and structure fragmented product data, providing manufacturers with detailed insights into their supply chains. Their platform combines this enriched data with proprietary datasets covering material production, costs, environmental footprints, and regulatory compliance.
Makersite employs artificial intelligence and graph technology to create digital twins of products, allowing teams to measure environmental impacts and identify mitigation strategies or alternative sourcing options in real time. The platform also offers performance reporting to communicate key metrics such as cost, carbon emissions, compliance, and risk to stakeholders, customers, and regulators.
Real-World Impact and Industry Adoption
Manufacturers like Microsoft, Daikin, Cummins, Barco, and Schneider Electric use Makersite’s platform to design safer, greener, and compliant products. The system integrates with leading PLM software such as Siemens Teamcenter and PTC Windchill, as well as CAD tools like Ansys and Autodesk, which are commonly used in product development workflows.
Microsoft, for example, has cut the carbon footprint of its Surface Pro 10 laptop by up to 28% over two years using Makersite. Schneider Electric plans to deploy the platform across more than 200,000 SKUs to scale eco-design and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).
Investor Confidence and Market Need
Investors emphasize confidence in Makersite’s approach, which balances cost, safety, and environmental performance rather than treating sustainability as a simple checkbox. Chris Steinau from Lightrock stated that Makersite is well-positioned to help manufacturers meet increasingly strict regulations and supply chain risks.
Partech’s General Partners expressed strong belief in Makersite’s product superiority and market potential, highlighting the leadership of Neil D’Souza and his team. SE Ventures also praised Makersite’s lifecycle and supply chain expertise and the platform’s ability to automate processing of thousands of SKUs efficiently, which enhances supply chain visibility and sustainable product development at scale.
Why Sustainable Product Design Matters Now
Manufacturing accounts for roughly 19% of global greenhouse gas emissions, making sustainability a critical challenge for the industry. Increasing regulatory pressure and stakeholder expectations are pushing manufacturers to adopt greener design processes while improving supply chain resilience and cost-effectiveness.
For larger companies, simplifying complexity and boosting agility are key goals. Smaller manufacturers often focus on finding affordable sustainability solutions. Platforms like Makersite’s provide actionable insights that support these objectives directly within the product development cycle.
- Accelerates sustainable decision-making during product design
- Enables real-time collaboration on impact reduction strategies
- Integrates seamlessly with existing PLM and CAD tools
- Supports comprehensive performance reporting for compliance and communication
Product development professionals looking to deepen their expertise in AI-driven sustainability tools may find value in exploring relevant AI courses and certifications at Complete AI Training.
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