SpinLab startup Prodlane GmbH has reached another milestone with its AI platform MAIA. The seven-figure seed financing round is led by our partner Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen (TGFS) and supported by business angels and a Swiss family office. The funds will be used to further grow the company, expand the sales team and develop additional technical features of the product. The Leipzig based startup began in our Summer School for Diverse Startups, chose Leipzig as their base, advanced through the HHL Digital Space incubator, and joined the 13th SpinLab class in 2021.
MAIA (Mittelstand AI Assistant) processes and analyzes complex data and documents that are available in many medium-sized companies, especially in the manufacturing industry. Examples include product manuals, construction plans, data sheets, standards, guidelines, competitive and market information. These can be accessed by the users via an intuitive chat interface. As a result, the tedious searches for relevant information in complex product sheets, regulatory documents or the onboarding processes of new employees can be significantly simplified. Companies are achieving significant increases in efficiency and quality thanks to MAIA, despite the increasing shortage of skilled workers.
"Nowadays, employees in industrial companies lose up to two hours a day per person looking through files and processing this information. Due to the amount of data that has accumulated in SMEs over the last few decades, it is often difficult to retrieve information efficiently. The information is scattered across different systems," explains founder Carolin Maier, founder of MAIA. She continues: "Our goal is to use artificial intelligence to make large volumes of unstructured data accessible, analyzable and usable in compliance with GDPR, thereby offering users real added value." The company already serves customers from the entire DACH region, including market leaders in mechanical engineering, medical technology, the energy industry and consulting.
The MAIA team led by Carolin Maier (CEO) and Mathias Jakob (CTO) combines in-depth expertise in AI, data analysis and B2B software with a deep understanding of the specific requirements of SMEs. With technologies such as AI agent systems and modern Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) approaches, MAIA automates complex search processes and thus not only enables efficiency gains, but also new opportunities for innovation and growth.
"In today's environment of external pressure to innovate, complex product portfolios and safety regulations, industrial companies need careful and efficient knowledge management. This is exactly where MAIA comes in. With AI support, employees can now perform their daily tasks quickly and efficiently - thanks to instant access to relevant company knowledge with reliable results. The benefits that MAIA offers with its product, such as the automation of routine tasks and ultimately the improvement in employee productivity in combination with the well-coordinated team, were convincing arguments for us to invest in the company," summarizes Sören Schuster, Managing Director of TGFS.