Zentio raises €1.4 million in pre-seed funding, led by HTGF and supported by SI Ventures.
The AI-first platform structures and centralizes operational and machine data, enabling decision-makers to optimize production in real time, increase productivity, and minimize downtime.
Funding will accelerate team growth and technology development, including ML pipelines, mathematical optimization, and agent-based automation.
Berlin, 11.12.2025 (embargoed) Zentio announces a €1.4 million pre-seed funding round, a key step toward realizing the company’s vision of elevating European manufacturing through automation and intelligent decision-making.
To deliver on this, Zentio enables AI-native production planning in real time. The system structures and centralizes the full range of operational, machine and production data through AI agents, creating a self-learning flywheel effect. This depth of data on shopfloor level provides decision-makers with the clarity and confidence they need to run operations with greater productivity.
The round was led by HTGF (High Tech Gründerfonds), one of the most active early-stage investors in deep tech, industrial technology, and AI-based innovation. With more than 800 investments in technology-oriented startups, HTGF brings deep industry expertise, a strong industrial and manufacturing network, and extensive experience in building scalable industrial software.
Additional support came from SIVentures, which brings deep experience in backing early-stage B2B technology startups. Together, the investors provide both strategic and operational support for Zentio’s next phase of growth.
Why Zentio?
European manufacturing is at a critical juncture. Every day, industrial companies face thousands of decisions, from small operational adjustments to major strategic shifts. Each choice creates cascading effects across the entire value chain: a change in shift scheduling affects machine utilization, which affects inventory levels, which impacts cash flow and storage costs.
The reality is that these decisions are deeply interdependent. Yet no single person or existing system can oversee and simulate all these ripple effects in real time. Companies lack the resources to constantly calculate every scenario by hand, and the costs are staggering: millions lost to suboptimal planning, reduced productivity, excessive capital tied up in inventory, missed delivery deadlines, and underutilized capacity.
European manufacturers need a new approach, one that doesn't just digitize old processes, but fundamentally transforms how decisions are made.
As Immo Polewka, co-founder and CCO at Zentio, explains, the best way to bridge this gap is by moving forward: "Our vision is to elevate the standard of decision-making in European manufacturing. By combining operational data with mathematical optimization and agentic automation, companies can plan ahead strategically and respond to disruptions with confidence". This allows decision-makers to anticipate capacity needs weeks in advance, respond to machine breakdowns or material shortages with the best available options, and adjust shift schedules or machine settings in real time to increase output and minimize idle time.
How Zentio Will Use the Funding
The funding round will allow Zentio to strengthen existing partnerships and set the stage for long-term impact across European manufacturing. “Our main focus for the next months is to advance our core mathematical systems and ML pipelines and tie it all together with UX and agents. To achieve this, we’re expanding our team with ambitious engineers who want to join us on our mission to build the first generation of AI-native production planning.” says Christophe Kafrouni, Co-Founder and CTO of Zentio.