In an industry where unplanned downtime costs more than $1.4 trillion per year, Cerrion aims to provide factories with continuous monitoring capable of anticipating failures before they disrupt production. Faced with rising energy costs and the complexity of supply chains, the Zurich startup considers automated vision to be one of the most under-exploited levers in the manufacturing industry.
Origin of the project: transforming an industrial blind spot into an operational advantage
Cerrion was born from the observation that factories have countless sensors, but most of the critical signals remain visual and therefore difficult to exploit continuously. Founded in 2020 by Karim Saleh And Tamara Djurickovicboth from ETH Zurich, they sought to convert industrial cameras into intelligent sensors capable of observing what operators cannot perceive in real time. The initial idea was to automate diagnostics on production lines, where process deviations, quality defects or safety risks still largely escape human detection.
The solution: autonomous video agents integrated into production lines
Cerrion is now developing a platform forAI video agents capable of continuously interpreting feeds from existing cameras. These models detect any deviation (abnormal speed, abnormal accumulation, suspicious vibration, incorrectly oriented part, non-compliant gesture) then automatically trigger an alert, slow down a machine or cause a controlled stop. The approach combines vision, machine behavior modeling and autonomous intervention capability. Agents also provide root cause analyzes allowing operators to act on recurring anomalies without delay.
Uses: quality, security and productivity in real time
Deployed in 15 countries on 3 continentsthe technology is used in glass, the food industry, beverages, wood and even consumer goods. Industrialists like Unilever, Riedel, Schott Zwiesel, Stölzle Lausitz, Sisecam or Verallia rely on Cerrion to reduce scrap, control micro-stops and improve safety. Several clients extend the use of the platform a few months after a pilot, moving from a single site to a global deployment.
The ambition: expand the layer of intelligence beyond vision
The startup intends to go beyond video analysis alone to integrate other industrial signals, in order to create a multi-modal decision-making layer. It also plans to expand its presence in the United States, where labor shortages and logistical constraints are increasing interest in autonomous systems. The team, from ETH Zurich, Google and EPFL, must double its workforce between Europe and the United States to support R&D, improve the predictive capabilities of agents and accelerate multi-site deployment.
Fundraising: €15.3 million to expand the platform and strengthen the teams
Cerrion raised 15.3 million euros ($18 million) in Series Ain a tour led by Creandumwith the participation ofY Combinator, Goat Capital, 10x Founders And VC sessionas well as several individual investors, including Harry Stebbings, Oskar Hjertonsson, Thomas Wolf And Garrett Langley. This funding should make it possible to accelerate commercial deployment, extend the platform beyond just vision and strengthen operations in Europe and the United States.
