EIC-backed Makersite closes EUR 60m Series B to scale AI and sustainable product design

Brussels, September 19th 2025

Summary

›German SaaS startup Makersite raised EUR 60 million in a Series B round led by a syndicate including Partech, TransLink Capital, Planet A and others.
›The EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach Programme facilitated a key introduction to KOMPAS VC that contributed to the round.
›Makersite will use the new capital to expand data capture and AI infrastructure and to grow headcount from 155 to 200 by year end.
›Makersite cites an example where Microsoft used its platform to cut the Surface Pro 10 carbon footprint by 28 percent, a claim that depends on the underlying life cycle analysis.
›The company was an early EIC beneficiary, having received a EUR 71,400 SME Instrument Phase 1 grant in 2019.

Makersite raises EUR 60 million Series B with support from the EIC investor readiness programme

Makersite, a German software as a service company focused on sustainable product design, announced a €60 million Series B financing on 19 September 2025. The round brought together a wide syndicate of investors including Partech, TransLink Capital, Planet A Ventures, SE Ventures, KOMPAS VC and Hitachi Ventures. The company says the EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach Programme played a direct role in arranging an introduction to KOMPAS VC that helped move the round forward.

What Makersite does and who it serves

Makersite provides a platform aimed at product designers, manufacturers and electronics companies. It aggregates data on materials, regulatory compliance, costs and environmental impacts to help engineering and procurement teams make design choices earlier in the product development process. The proposition is to accelerate sustainable product design by bringing diverse datasets into a single decision workflow.

Sustainable product design explained:The term refers to integrating environmental considerations such as material selection, recyclability and embodied carbon into product development. Platforms like Makersite attempt to operationalise those considerations by linking material properties, supplier information and life cycle impact data so engineers can compare trade offs between cost, compliance and environmental impact.

The Microsoft case and the caveats around impact claims

Makersite highlights Microsoft as a customer and says the platform helped reduce the carbon footprint of the Surface Pro 10 by 28 percent. The company uses such client examples to illustrate the potential of data-driven design to lower embodied emissions and improve regulatory compliance.

Interpreting the 28 percent reduction claim:A percentage like 28 percent is meaningful only with a clear scope and methodology. Key questions include whether the reduction refers to cradle to gate or cradle to grave emissions, which life cycle stages are included, which materials or components drove the improvement and whether the result comes from a full life cycle assessment or from modelling and assumptions. Corporate case studies are useful signals but they are not the same as independent, peer reviewed verification.

Series B details and investor list

Makersite says the €60 million Series B was backed by a mix of earlier and new investors. The company framed the round as validation of its business case and mission amid unstable economic and geopolitical conditions.

Investor	Type / Region	Role noted in announcement
Partech	Venture capital, Europe	Lead investor among participants
TransLink Capital	VC, US and Asia focused	Participant
Planet A Ventures	Impact VC, Europe	Participant
SE Ventures	Corporate VC (Schneider Electric), Europe/Global	Participant
KOMPAS VC	VC, Europe	Introduced via EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach Programme
Hitachi Ventures	Corporate VC, Japan/Global	Participant
H.I. Capital	Private equity / VC, Europe	Earlier investor now in syndicate
Lightrock	Growth investor, Europe	Participant

How the EIC was involved

The European Innovation Council supported Makersite early and later provided business acceleration services. Makersite received a EUR 71,400 grant under the SME Instrument Phase 1 in 2019, an early validation that the company highlights in its fundraising narrative. More recently the EIC Business Acceleration Services connected Makersite to KOMPAS VC through the EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach Programme.

EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach Programme:The programme is designed to improve the investor readiness of EIC-backed innovators. Services include mentoring, pitch coaching, benchmarking and introductions to investors through matchmaking events, ePitchings and Investor Days. The stated aim is to help deep-tech firms professionalise their fundraising story and access sector specific investors.

A partner quoted in the announcement, Sebastian Peck of KOMPAS VC, said the EIC connection was instrumental in exploring the investment opportunity. Such introductions can shorten due diligence timelines and expand investor awareness. At the same time introductions are only one element in a syndicate. Most rounds are won or lost on unit economics, product traction and the depth of the investor syndicate.

Planned use of proceeds and growth targets

Makersite says it will allocate the new capital to enhance its data capture capabilities and to build out AI infrastructure. The company also plans to increase headcount from 155 to 200 employees by the end of the year. Investments in data capture and AI tooling are consistent with the product claims because richer, more reliable data and robust models are necessary for scalable, automated design recommendations.

What 'data capture' and 'AI infrastructure' typically mean for a SaaS design platform:Data capture refers to collecting and normalising information from suppliers, material databases, regulatory sources and customers. AI infrastructure covers the compute, pipelines and model tooling needed to train and deploy predictive models and optimisation algorithms. Both require engineering investment and high quality inputs to avoid amplifying errors or bias in automated recommendations.

EIC support history and ecosystem context

Makersite exemplifies a pattern the EIC emphasises. Early-stage non dilutive grants are used to validate technical feasibility and market need. Subsequent EIC Business Acceleration Services can provide coaching and investor introductions that help startups professionalise their pitch and reach potential backers. The EIC has positioned these services to increase conversion of deep-tech projects into scaleups with access to private capital.

How the EIC fits into the EU innovation landscape:The EIC operates under Horizon Europe and aims to bridge the valley of death for deep-tech ventures by combining grants and acceleration services. Its approach mixes early stage research funding with business-facing services and where appropriate co investment through the EIC Fund. Policymakers see this as a lever to build European industrial capacity and retain strategic technologies in the region.

A critical view on the announcement and remaining questions

The Series B is a notable financing outcome. It indicates investor interest in climate oriented design tooling. However there are several open questions that matter for long term impact and commercial success. These include the transparency of the environmental impact methodologies behind headline client claims, the durability and defensibility of Makersite's data assets, how well models generalise across industries and geographies and how margins will evolve as the platform scales.

Startups that promise to make sustainable design the default must also prove they can integrate with established engineering workflows and procurement processes. Large enterprise customers tend to demand auditability and traceability in both data and model outputs. That requirement increases the operational burden on firms that aggregate and normalise supplier data at scale.

Funding timeline and milestones

Year	Event	Amount or note
2019	SME Instrument Phase 1 grant from EIC	EUR 71,400
2025	Series B announced	EUR 60,000,000
Ongoing	EIC Business Acceleration Services support	Investor introductions, mentoring and pitch support via Investor Readiness Programme

What this means for investors and policy makers

For investors the round is another indicator that tooling for sustainability and supply chain transparency is a growing category. For European innovation policy the Makersite case supports the argument that public seed funding plus targeted acceleration services can help firms attract follow on private capital. The scale of the Series B also raises expectations on execution and governance as the company transitions from product-market fit to enterprise scale.

Policymakers should watch whether EIC facilitated introductions are translating into durable investor relationships and whether public support is reducing friction for deep-tech companies without crowding out private discovery of promising startups.

Quotes from the announcement

Neil D'Souza, CEO and Founder of Makersite, said securing this level of commitment especially in today's uncertain economic and geopolitical environment demonstrates the strength of our business case and the urgency of our mission. Sebastian Peck, Partner at KOMPAS VC, said the connection made by Dealflow through the EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach Programme has proven to be instrumental in helping us explore this exciting investment opportunity with Makersite.

Bottom line

Makersite's €60 million Series B is a significant fundraising milestone and a visible example of how public early stage support and business acceleration services can feed into larger private rounds. The practical test will be execution. Key indicators to follow are client retention, independent verification of environmental impact claims, the quality and proprietary nature of Makersite's data assets and the platform's ability to integrate into enterprise procurement and engineering processes at scale.