-Czech startup tackles growing engineering shortages and rising manufacturing complexity with AI-driven troubleshooting infrastructure -Unplanned downtime currently accounts for 11% of revenue for the world’s largest industrial companies, equivalent to roughly $1.4 trillion annually

PRAGUE (9 April 2026) - Edmund, a Czech startup developing AI-powered debugging platform for industrial maintenance, has raised €2.5 million in funding led by FORWARD.one, with participation from University2Ventures and Tensor Ventures. The investment will support international expansion and continued development of its platform, which helps manufacturers reduce downtime and preserve critical operational know-how.

Manufacturing is entering a period of structural strain. As production systems become more complex and data-intensive, the availability of skilled engineers is moving in the opposite direction. In Europe alone, tens of thousands of engineering roles remain unfilled, while around 20% of the current workforce is expected to retire within the next decade. This combination of rising complexity and shrinking expertise is leaving companies increasingly dependent on fragmented documentation, legacy systems, and institutional knowledge to keep operations running, driving costly downtime, slow diagnostics, and growing operational risk across global supply chains.

Edmund addresses this gap by deploying AI agents that connect technical documentation, PLC projects, maintenance logs, and real-time machine data into a single system. Rather than acting as a generic chatbot, the platform functions as an operational layer inside the factory, enabling technicians to identify faults, understand root causes, and receive step-by-step guidance within minutes.

In practice, this approach significantly reduces the time required to diagnose issues, cutting troubleshooting from hours or days to minutes. In manufacturing, the majority of downtime is spent diagnosing faults rather than fixing them, often up to 80% of the total time. Edmund cuts this analysis phase by up to 90%, dramatically reducing overall downtime and accelerating recovery. At Amcor Flexibles, for example, Edmund's system reduced average repair times by 26% in total, saving approximately 440 man-hours annually, per factory.

"The real challenge is not a lack of data, but a lack of context," said Jakub Szlaur, co-founder and CEO of Edmund. "We're building AI agents that understand how machines actually work, down to the PLC project level, so instead of searching through documentation or waiting for experts, engineers can act immediately."

"Edmund is solving one of the most overlooked challenges in industrial maintenance: how knowledge is transferred and applied under pressure," said Beau Anne-Chilla, Partner at FORWARD.one. "Their approach has the potential to become a foundational layer for modern manufacturing."

Founded in 2023, Edmund is designed to be hardware-agnostic and compatible with a wide range of industrial systems. The company will use the new funding to grow its team, expand across European and US markets, and further develop its platform toward fully contextual, AI-driven troubleshooting and diagnostics for industrial operations.

Dr. Johannes Triebs,?Founding Partner, U2V (ex-Earlybird-X): "We are thrilled to back Edmund AI alongside our friends at FORWARD.one. Edmund is turning the factory floor into an intelligent, self-diagnosing system that gives manufacturers real-time answers instead of costly downtime. Our corporate network spans exactly the industrial players Edmund needs to accelerate its expansion, and we look forward to helping Edmund expand across Europe."

As manufacturers face increasing pressure to maintain efficiency with fewer experienced workers, the cost of inaction is rising sharply. Research from Siemens estimates that unplanned downtime now accounts for around 11% of revenue for the world's largest industrial companies - equivalent to roughly $1.4 trillion annually. Against this backdrop, solutions that embed intelligence directly into troubleshooting workflows are expected to play a critical role in the next phase of industrial transformation.

About Edmund
Edmund is a Czech-based startup developing an AI-powered platform for troubleshooting industrial production lines. Founded in 2023 by Jakub Szlaur, Benjamin Przeczek, and Miroslav Marek, the company builds on the founders' hands-on experience in industrial automation and high-availability systems. Edmund's platform integrates PLC projects, technical documentation, and operational data into a unified system, enabling maintenance teams to identify root causes and resolve issues in minutes rather than hours. It also captures and structures company know-how into a shared maintenance log, ensuring expertise is retained and reused across teams.
The company is already working with major manufacturers and has demonstrated the ability to reduce diagnostic time by 90% and reduce manufacturing downtime by 26%. Edmund previously raised over €500,000 and is expanding its presence across European and international markets.
Visit: https://www.edmundai.com/