Fractory expands across United States

Cloud manufacturing company, Fractory, one of Estonia’s famed high-growth startup businesses, is continuing to expand across the US.

Fractory entered the U.S. market earlier in the year, with a base in Chicago from which it began doing business across the Midwest. Now, with its supplier network growing across the country, it began offering its automated manufacturing procurement service coast to coast October 1, 2022.

Fractory is an automated on-demand manufacturing platform connecting engineers and manufacturing companies.

“Our beta stage, trading across Illinois and surrounding states, has shown us the way ahead for national expansion,” says Nikodem Pancewicz, who runs Fractory’s USA operations. “In operating across the whole of the US we aim to grow Fractory’s customer base by more than 700% within two years. Fractory is well-established in Nordic and Baltic countries. We have been successfully expanding in the U.K. And we are now ideally placed to service the entire US market.”

Fractory Country Manager USA, Nikodem, studied at Harvard and Northwestern and worked at ABB and Eaton. He specializes in sustainable manufacturing and supply chains.

“Fractory’s built by engineers for engineers. Every function is run by people with engineering expertise, which has allowed us to create something that users value and come back to on a regular basis.” he says.

“The Fractory solution is born out of the Estonian experience where, very quickly, after achieving independence in 1991, Estonia became, arguably, the world’s most digitally advanced society, where much of everyday life is automated. That experience explains Fractory’s engineer founders automating the processes within their own industry, specifically manufacturing procurement, with the aim of saving time and money and making manufacturing more sustainable.”

Fractory provides access to manufacturing processes online, including laser, sheet and tube cutting, metal bending, surface treatment and CNC machining.

Fractory funding
In June Fractory was issued with a $4M USD venture debt facility from Kreos Capital, an investor which specializes in high-growth companies. Eligible startups often opt for venture debt to extend their growth period and maximize value in the next funding round.

Fractory had earlier raised $9M USD in Series A funding in 2021, before beginning its operations in Chicago and across the Midwest.

Martin Vares, Fractory co-founder & CEO, says, “Raising a strong A round last year gave us the tools to improve our position and this new funding helps as we expand further. This type of funding, a loan facility, is not issued because of Fractory’s potential, but because of our strong business performance.”

Kreos Capital is a sought after and experienced growth partner which works exclusively with carefully vetted high-growth businesses. Since 1998, Kreos Capital has committed in excess of $3.7bn across +670 transactions, to more than 550 high-growth companies. Today, Kreos invests more than $500m a year.

Fractory’s mission
Fractory has been trading since 2017 and was founded by mechanical engineer-turned entrepreneur Martin Vares along with Joosep Merelaht (COO) and Rein Torm (CTO). Fractory connects engineering companies to production capacity online, providing instant access to manufacturing processes - including laser, sheet and tube cutting and CNC machining. It improves efficiency, accessibility and quality. Through its cloud-manufacturing platform which enables access to market availability for fabrication services, Fractory makes manufacturing more sustainable.

Since inception, Fractory has demonstrated average annual growth of 300% and employee number growth of 250%.