Established systems, limited transparency

In many European plants, the production infrastructure has grown historically. Different control and automation systems from different manufacturers have been added to and connected with each other over decades. In practice, this heterogeneous system landscape means that it is difficult to gain a complete overview of production processes and changes are associated with considerable technical risks. Every change carries the risk of expensive production downtime, which, according to Linexa, can cost up to 2.3 million dollars per hour. Accordingly, the motto "Never change a running system" continues to apply in many places.

Linexa wants to make the control level accessible

This is the background against which the Munich-based start-up is positioning itself. The company is addressing a problem that is similar in many factories but is rarely fully visible: the status and functional logic of the control level of industrial systems.

While many digitalization approaches are based on process data or sensor information, Linexa accesses the control logic of machines directly and transfers this into a standardized data model. The aim is to make production systems more comprehensible in their entirety and to enable optimization based on this.

Claim: Control over complex production systems

"Every production site that closes in Germany and Europe, every hidden champion that is bought up by foreign investors, weakens our economic strength and thus Europe's independence. A strong manufacturing industry is the backbone of our prosperity. Linexa gives manufacturing companies back control over their own plants and thus strengthens their competitiveness," says Viktor Stryczek, co-founder and co-CEO.

The company describes an example from the application as follows: A cosmetics manufacturer is converting a filling line from liquid soap to hand cream. Linexa analyzes the control logic of the line, identifies potential risks and helps to avoid downtimes in the changeover process and reduce the changeover time.

The technology is also already being used in the food industry. According to the company, one of Germany's largest manufacturers is using the platform to restructure production networks and drive forward digitalization initiatives.

"European production is our economic foundation. With Linexa, we can modernize our store floor quickly enough to keep pace with global competition. That's why we invested," says Florian Heinemann, General Partner at Project A.

2 million euros pre-seed financing

Linexa was founded at the end of 2025 by Viktor Stryczek, Alexandros Vassiliadis and Tobias Drees and is based in Munich. The company sees itself as a deep-tech provider that structures existing, manufacturer-independent control systems in factories and thus aims to create a basis for the use of AI in production.

The company has now completed a pre-seed financing round of 2 million euros. The round was led by the early-stage investor Project A. The business angels involved include well-known faces such as Thomas Böck (CEO Festo), Bastian Nominacher (founder Celonis) and Christian Schlögel (former CTO/CDO of Kuka and Körber). The capital will be used to expand the platform and grow the team.