Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourselves briefly!
Actyx: We are Roland (43), Oli (31) and Max (31), the founders of Actyx. We offer a Software development platform for the digitalization of manufacturing and logistics processes. Our platform runs on an extremely innovative architecture: a fully decentralized edge computing platform. There is no central server in our system, neither in the cloud nor on-premises. Roland has participated in the Technical University of Munich in physics, Oli and Max are both mechanical engineers from ETH Zurich.
Actyx: “Factories are very complex systems”
Oli and Max met on their first day of university at the introductory seminar, where they happened to be sitting next to each other. Oli specialized in digital production technologies during his studies and spent a year working at the Fraunhofer Institute IOSB-INA, a leading institute for Industry 4.0. Max worked in the field of nanotechnology and began his doctorate in applied physical chemistry, but soon realized that factories and software were much more exciting. While at Fraunhofer, Oli presented the latest Industry 4.0 trends to a customer in the manufacturing industry. The company owner was immediately interested in a project (after first trying to hire Oli). This was the nucleus for Actyx; Oli and Max then sought a highly experienced software engineer who would be responsible for the software architecture and leading the development team. Roland was passionate about developing software for factories and left his job as team leader of the widely used software framework Akka to co-found Actyx with Oli and Max.
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
Actyx: Factories are highly complex systems in which numerous machines and people must be perfectly coordinated to produce a product at the right time and in the right quantity. Software that digitizes these processes must be able to handle this complexity, but also be highly flexible to respond to the individual needs of each factory. Furthermore, the software must be extremely reliable; otherwise, machine downtimes occur, for example, because the material is not delivered on time. Our decentralized platform offers precisely these features, enabling developers to build reliable and easily scalable solutions incredibly quickly.
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Actyx: Of course, there are already many providers offering software in this area. However, these solutions are generally based on a centralized architecture (client-server). Our architecture offers enormous advantages in terms of system reliability and flexibility. Furthermore, our platform is a developer-first product, meaning it was designed for software developers and features deep integration of the most modern development tools.
Munich Startup: What have been your three biggest challenges so far?
Actyx: There are always challenges in a startup, but a major one was, of course, the first paying customer. We wanted to develop software that would actually be used in factories. Although we initially had interest from an industrial company, it took a good 10 months before we wrote the first line of code. Our first developers initially wrote project proposals and conducted consulting projects with factories to understand exactly what their challenges were.
A second major challenge was expanding the team, finding good people, and establishing appropriate structures. When you start with a team of 5-6 people, you don't need any structure and it just works. With more than 20 people, you need more structure and better communication, and we definitely learned a lot there.
Conscious decision for Munich
Finally, another challenge was the transition to a 100% focus on selling our platform almost a year ago. Previously, we had always developed our platform and its solutions in parallel. After receiving significant market interest, we decided to focus entirely on developing and marketing the platform. Communicating with our partners, who are system integrators, service providers, or factory IT teams, is very different from talking about operational added value with plant managers.
Munich Startup: How are things going?
Actyx: We're pleased with how business is taking off with the platform. We now have eight partners using our platform as a building block for their solutions. The platform is running in 15 factories in Germany, the UK, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Canada, and Chile; the platform is often used extensively in production or logistics.
Munich Startup: How do you rate Munich as a startup location?
Actyx: We believe Munich is a good location. There are many skilled workers here, and it's attractive for skilled workers to move here. Furthermore, there are many medium-sized and large industrial companies in the immediate vicinity. This is one of the reasons why we deliberately chose Munich over, for example, Berlin.
Munich Startup: Hidden champion or shooting star?
Actyx: Currently a hidden champion on the way to becoming a shooting star.
