SAN FRANCISCO—Pico MES, a software company that is enabling digital transformation for small to medium-sized American factories, has received $12.35 million in investment from multiple venture capital firms, including Bosch Ventures, Counterpart Ventures and Momenta. 

Since its founding in 2019, Pico MES has integrated 10,000 processes into digital data streams and connected more than 1,900 devices to its platform. 

Pico MES is designed for the average factory worker, connecting the tools and machines with the people who use them, measuring shop-floor processes, and digitizing assembly lines. Additionally, its affordable, no-code platform is faster than paper-based methods, and it has an open API for connection to other critical systems on the shop floor. Pico MES is also fast to deploy, enabling remote installations in just hours.

“Digital manufacturing solutions provide massive efficiency gains for enterprises, but have often ignored midsize factories due to smaller sizes and budgets,” says Ryan Kuhlenbeck, co-founder and CEO of Pico MES. “American manufacturing cannot succeed without the supply base of midsize factories. Pico MES connects these factories with their OEM customers, enabling visibility up and down the supply chain and creating a new level of efficiency gains for all.”  

Digitizing labor-intensive processes also helps U.S. factories compete with those overseas. The current status quo to track manufacturing processes is with pen and paper, creating errors, inefficiencies and data silos. With Pico MES, manufacturers can look into any work stream, implement proven solutions to address challenges, and maximize production. 

“For factories to remain competitive they need to digitize their labor‐intensive production setups,” says Ingo Ramesohl, managing director of Bosch Ventures. “Bosch has a large network of suppliers, and like many enterprises, [we strive for] increased transparency in deeper supply chains. Pico MES…has the potential to set new standards for transparency, collaboration, and operational excellence for all stakeholders within this ecosystem.”

After spending nearly two decades at General Motors, Tesla and Alta Motors, Kuhlenbeck and his co-founders Geoff Bucks and Zac Nelson started Pico MES because they experienced first-hand the frustrations between supplier and manufacturer. The founding team recognized most inefficiencies were due to poor access to data and created Pico MES as a mid-market manufacturing execution system.

Since its launch in 2019, Pico MES has been deployed in dozens of factories that operate as Tier 1, 2 or Tier 3 suppliers to larger OEMs in the EV, aerospace and battery industries. This new round of funding will help expand Pico MES’ software to more factories and advance its vision of creating connected supply chains for American manufacturing.

See this company at The ASSEMBLY Show, Oct. 24-26, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL.