High-tech company Trumpf is set to invest around four million euros in ScaleNC. This startup offers digital services on a cloud platform to sheet metal manufacturers, for example, to program their machines. The enterprise intends to use this investment to fuel growth in Germanophone countries and branch out its services to customers in the US. “ScaleNC is the answer to the skills shortage. Many of our customers struggle to fill vacancies. On top of that, ScaleNC provides cost benefits and helps our customers strengthen their competitive stance,” says Tom Schneider, managing director research and development at Trumpf Werkzeugmaschinen. The startup, which currently employs eleven people, is determined to continue growing.

ScaleNC handles machine programming and the preparation of manufacturing data for its customers. They can upload their data, drawings and sketches to a cloud platform at any time for this purpose. This wholly-owned Trumpf subsidiary not only uses AI and data-based algorithms for the subsequent programming; it also has experienced CAD/CAM specialists double-check the programming. This combination enables the company to handle even very challenging jobs at short notice. Customers seeking to plug gaps when skilled workers are short supply can draw on ScaleNC’s services selectively at a fixed standard price without any contractual commitments. They can also enjoy the benefits of even more cost-effective operations by opting for a long-term agreement. As it stands, ScaleNC serves primarily customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The company aims to offer its solution in other countries and is preparing to plant a footprint in the US market in 2023.

Having initially invested in the startup when it was first spun off, Trumpf has been using the cloud-based solution for its production lines for over a year now. “Trumpf’s renewed investment in ScaleNC will help us pursue our growth targets. Industry demand for cloud-based services is growing, and we look forward to making our solutions available to even more customers,” says ScaleNC founder and CEO Holger Röder. The inceptive ideas for digital, platform-based, machine programming services emerged at Trumpf in 2019. The founding team validated the idea in collaboration with Trumpf customers as part of Internehmertum, an in-house incubator program, and developed it further to create a business model. ScaleNC was then spun off in summer of 2020.

Trumpf has also acquired the remaining 49 percent of the shares in Indian software developer Trumpf Metamation Pvt. Ltd. The Chennai-based software firm, which specializes in the development of CAD and CAM software applications and machine control solutions, is a key component of Trumpf’s global software strategy. It offers excellent conditions for further growth thanks to Chennai’s established cluster of international software firms.

Trumpf had acquired a 51 percent majority stake in the software developer in 2014. The company currently employs around forty software specialists.