Penningtons Manches Cooper advises Matta on $14 million seed funding to advance ‘sentient factory’ technology
Penningtons Manches Cooper has advised Matta Labs Ltd, the industrial AI spinout from the University of Cambridge, on its $14 million seed funding round led by Lakestar, with participation from Giant Ventures, RedSeed VC, InMotion Ventures, 1st Kind, Unruly Capital and Boost VC. The round was further supported by grants from Innovate UK and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Matta is developing AI-powered manufacturing foundation models capable of transforming real-time decision making in manufacturing environments. Its technology uses unsupervised and self-supervised computer vision to deliver automated quality control, anomaly detection, root cause diagnostics, and corrective recommendations.
The company’s plug-and-play platform can be deployed in a matter of hours and has already demonstrated exceptional impact across early customer sites – including >99% defect detection in polymer manufacturing after just 10 minutes of data, high-speed bottling inspection for a global drinks company, and precision measurement of speaker components for Bowers & Wilkins. Matta has more than 300 factories in its commercial pipeline, with new deployments occurring roughly every two weeks.
The funding will be used to accelerate customer adoption, deepen Matta’s AI capabilities, expand into key European and U.S. manufacturing regions, and build self-service deployment tools. The company’s long-term ambition is to enable autonomous, end-to-end production lines.
The Penningtons Manches Cooper team was led by corporate partner James Went, supported by corporate senior associate Anoushka Gangji and commercial partner Rachel Bradley.
Douglas Brion, Co-founder & CEO, Matta said: “We are delighted to have secured this funding from such a strong group of global investors as we accelerate the development and deployment of Matta’s industrial AI platform. Manufacturing remains one of the world’s most complex and underserved data environments, and our technology is already demonstrating how factories can operate with far greater intelligence, efficiency and resilience.”
He added: “Penningtons Manches Cooper have been exceptional partners throughout this process. Their deep understanding of technology-driven businesses and their practical, commercial approach has been invaluable as we take this next step in scaling Matta.”
James Went, Partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper said: “It has been a privilege to support the Matta team from inception and now on this key investment round. Matta represents the very best of the UK’s deep-tech and university spinout ecosystem – combining world-class research with a compelling commercial vision and clear industry demand.
The calibre of investors participating in this round reflects the strength of the opportunity ahead. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Matta as they scale their technology across global manufacturing markets.”