Düsseldorf-based RIIICO, a DeepTech startup developing a platform for digital models, has raised €4.3 million in Seed funding to expand its AI platform with new applications for utilising digital twins, helping to enhance the resilience and competitiveness of its industrial clients.
The round is led by PropTech fund Pi Labs. Additional investors are seed + speed Ventures, WaVe-X, Earlybird Venture Capital, and Volvo Cars Tech Fund.
Felix Fink, CEO, RIIICO: “With our lead users in the automotive sector, we’ve already proven the value of our solution under extreme cost pressures and high-quality demands. With our new investors, spearheaded by lead investor Pi Labs, we aim to enhance the connection between real factory environments and digital models, boosting flexibility to strengthen industry resilience and competitiveness.”
Founded in 2021, RIIICO develops an AI-based software platform that enables industrial companies to digitally model, redesign, and quickly adapt their established factories (brownfields) to new products or processes. The aim is to make production sites more efficient, agile, and resilient.
While new overseas competitors build modern greenfield plants from scratch, RICCO outlines that established Western manufacturers must upgrade their complex existing sites, often during ongoing operations. This task is costly, slow, and error-prone.
RIIICO’s solution makes retrofitting factories reportedly more efficient: a collaborative decision-making tool for all parties, from plant managers to suppliers. This makes redesigning processes four times faster and speeds up the launch of new products.
RICCO’s AI automatically detects machines, equipment, and building infrastructures in LiDAR scans and generates a 3D digital twin of the factory. This allows teams to simulate, assess, and implement different scenarios quickly and securely, like building with LEGO bricks.
Last year the solution was successfully used in the automotive industry to install electric vehicle production lines in factories previously used for combustion engines. Teams using RIIICO’s solution had access to realistic 3D data, reportedly reducing costly on-site revisions while setting a new benchmark for quality and efficiency.
Faisal Butt, Founder and managing partner at Pi Labs: “RIIICO has the potential to use AI to transform how factories redesign manufacturing facilities in response to business demands and shifting market conditions. The platform converts LiDAR scans of complex production environments into collaborative, predictive 3D models using proprietary deep learning algorithms.
“RIIICO is uniquely positioned to become a critical enabler for industrial facilities under increasing cost pressure, helping them operate more efficiently and competitively.”
