An on-demand manufacturing platform aiming to digitise the front end of UK manufacturing has secured investment from London-based venture capital fund, Fuel Ventures.
The investment fund, which recently raised £20 million in its third round, has invested £500,000 in Manufacturingsource.com.
Entrepreneurs Sam Al-Mukhtar and Will Hoyer Millar launched Manufacturingsource.com in 2017, after the pair realised there was a clear opportunity to address a known problem within the manufacturing sector, which was last year estimated at £384.5 billion in the UK alone. Since then the business has attracted a global network of 250 manufacturing partners and more than 1,000 engineers and procurement professionals across 400 companies, from start-ups to FTSE 100s.
The digital platform utilises AI and machine learning to calculate instant quotes for custom prototype and production parts, and identifies a manufacturing partner with the capabilities and capacity to start production right away. Currently, Manufacturingsource.com delivers parts to lead times in as little as three days.
Manufacturingsource.com will be using the investment from Fuel Ventures to build on its early success and expand its team of engineers to develop its innovative software.
Fuel Ventures is a venture capital firm that specialises in providing seed funding to early stage technology companies. It invests in founders who have the ambition to build a global, market leading company, with the passion and ability to execute. Fuel provides entrepreneurs with expertise and insights in business development, marketing and brand-building through its experience of building, scaling and exiting global companies.
Will Hoyer Millar, co-founder of Manufacturingsource.com, commented: “Despite recent technological advancements in line with the 4th industrial revolution, the process of collecting quotes for and ordering custom manufactured parts can still be an extremely painful process. My co-founder Sam experienced it first hand as an engineer, that’s how Manufacturingsource.com came about. We’ve set out to solve the problem of how difficult it is to manufacture high quality custom parts, quickly and at a fair price.
“Our aim is to be the go-to platform that fast-moving design and engineering teams turn to when looking to make the world’s most innovative products, and we’re delighted to have the backing of Fuel Ventures to build our team and further develop our intelligent software.”
Mark Pearson, founder of Fuel Ventures, said: “This is an exciting time for Fuel Ventures and its start-ups, and Manufacturingsource.com is a great business that has so much growth potential in a very lucrative industry. They have achieved a fantastic level of growth since launching last year and are making plans for further expansion following this investment.
“We don’t see our investments as just numbers in a spreadsheet, we nurture and support them because we only invest in companies that we believe in. Manufacturingsource.com is one of those companies, and we look forward to following their development in the coming months.”
Fuel Ventures www.fuel.ventures
Manufacturing Source www.manufacturingsource.com
