Exclusive: Podium raises $18M to automate control panel manufacturing

Exclusive: Podium raises $18M to automate control panel manufacturing

Podium Automation, a New York-based control panel manufacturer, raised an $18 million Series A, CEO Jamie Niu Serota tells Axios Pro exclusively.

Why it matters: Faster control panel manufacturing accelerates the capabilities of other hardware firms, builders and energy production systems.

Follow the money: Construct Capital led, joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Transition Ventures, Sunflower Capital and Banter Capital.

How it works: Podium automates the intake of varying customer requirements, selects the components needed and creates a 3D schematic design for fabrication of UL 508A control panels.

  • The control panels are cabinets that house complex wiring systems inside cars, HVAC systems, rockets and other machines.

    • State of play: Skilled engineers, who are leaving the workforce faster than they are being replaced, fabricate the panels at more than 5,000 manufacturing companies in the U.S. and more around the world.

    Friction point: While offshore manufacturing is often more inexpensive, shipping the panels from China or Mexico can drag out order lead times.

    Zoom in: Podium, which says it is the fastest U.S. panel manufacturer, can produce 20 million units per year at its Brooklyn factory.

  • Its lead times are three to four weeks, significantly shorter than the 10-12 week average, Serota says.

    • What they're saying: "We don't actually need to pull in a technician that has been doing this for 10, 20, 30 years," Serota tells Axios. "Not a single one of our assembly technicians in Brooklyn had built a control panel prior to coming to Podium."

  • Control panels are critical and ubiquitous in industrial systems, Construct Capital cofounder and managing partner Dayna Grayson adds.
  • "Our thesis is, start there, and then grow from control panels to perhaps other industrial capabilities, and rebuild it all in the automated way," Grayson tells Axios.

    • What's next: Podium to open a second factory in the next 12 months, adnd ultimately create a handful of production hubs to allow it to become the nation's largest panel manufacturer.