A new Swedish DeepTech startup is stepping out of stealth mode with an ambitious goal — to reinvent how hardware products are designed and manufactured. Stockholm-based Encube has secured €19 million in funding from Kinnevik, Promus Ventures, and Inventure, positioning itself among the most promising industrial AI players in Europe.
Encube’s software bridges the long-standing gap between design and manufacturing — a divide that often inflates production costs and slows time to market. The company’s AI-powered platform helps engineering teams identify how design choices affect manufacturing complexity early in the process, reducing both cost and carbon footprint.
“Hardware development is a balancing act between design, function, and production cost. In Europe, we’re great at the first two — but our manufacturing know-how is disappearing,” says Hugo Nordell, Encube’s CEO and Co-founder, formerly of Sandvik and Aker. “We built Encube to bring manufacturing intelligence back into the design phase.”
Riding Europe’s AI-for-Industry Wave
Encube’s emergence comes amid a wave of European funding for AI-driven manufacturing startups. Germany’s Resourcly and 36ZERO Vision raised €2.7 million and €3.6 million respectively in 2025, while UK-based PhysicsX landed a €117 million round. Within this landscape, Encube’s raise puts it among the upper mid-tier, reflecting investor confidence in AI-native engineering infrastructure rather than isolated production tools.
“Encube is one of the most promising innovations I’ve seen in hardware engineering in 30 years,” notes Ralf Usinger, Global Head of Engineering Applications at Beyond Gravity. “Its simulation speed and usability mark a major leap forward.”
DeepTech for a Smarter Industrial Future
Founded in 2021 by Nordell and Johnny Bigert, a veteran of Skype and Klarna, Encube develops collaborative, browser-based tools for hardware teams. The platform embeds AI-driven analysis directly into engineering workflows, enabling organizations to align decisions and eliminate bottlenecks — from tracking design changes to predicting manufacturing challenges before production begins.
Early validation from companies like Volvo Group, Scania, Birn Group, and Cognibotics underscores its potential. For industries facing a shortage of skilled engineers and tightening sustainability regulations, Encube offers a way to preserve expertise while adapting to new environmental and economic realities.
“We rely entirely on third parties to manufacture our robots. Encube makes it easier to uncover and mitigate product risk early in development,” says Mattias Vanberg, Director of Development at Cognibotics.
Strengthening Europe’s Industrial Competitiveness
Encube plans to use the new capital to expand its commercial presence across Europe and accelerate research into AI for hardware development. Its long-term vision is to help rebuild Europe’s manufacturing strength by fusing digital workflows with deep industrial expertise.
“AI is transforming how products are designed,” says Tatiana Shalalvand, Investment Director at Kinnevik. “Encube is leading this shift by embedding manufacturing intelligence directly into the engineering process.”
“Encube could do for industrial manufacturing what Figma did for web design,” adds Adrian Arnsvik Bjurefalk, Principal at Inventure.
With this new round, Encube joins the growing cohort of European startups using AI not just to optimize factories — but to reshape the very process of creation, from concept to production line.
