Factory raises $4.7m to modernise Australia’s ‘forgotten majority’ of manufacturers
Founders Paul and Michael Lutkajtis are betting manufacturers around the world are ready to ditch manual tools for smarter, scalable systems.
Small Australian manufacturers are the “forgotten majority” of the sector, according to Factory co-founder Paul Lutkajtis, who says the reality is clear in fabrication shops still running on spreadsheets, paper job sheets and whiteboards.
“This is an industry that’s been left behind in many ways by the tech sector, predominantly because it’s heavily misunderstood”, Lutkajtis told Capital Brief.
The SaaS company, which now has more than 200 Australian customers, has secured a $4.69 million Series A round led by Shearwater Capital, with participation from US investor Martin Tobias. Factory’s existing investors — Investible, Adrian DiMarco and Beachhead Capital — also tipped into the pool.
While workflow modernisation tools have long existed in manufacturing, they largely serve enterprise-scale businesses, which account for less than 10% of Australia’s manufacturing sector.
