Small businesses account for 95% of our precision manufacturing capacity, yet they are rapidly disappearing. With the average owner’s age exceeding 65 years and 40% planning to retire within 5 years, an existential threat is growing in Europe and North America. This erosion of manufacturing capacity coincides with surging demand from critical industries, as British companies plan to invest $650 billion over the next three years to reshore production. Without intervention, this widening gap between supply and demand threatens to undermine the West’s collective sovereignty.
Founded to transform manufacturing for critical industries, Isembard is pioneering a network of modular, highly automated manufacturing units powered by its proprietary MasonOS software. Through the integration of cutting-edge robotics, AI-driven production planning, and an innovative business model, Isembard is setting a new benchmark for efficiency, scalability, and resilience in the UK’s critical supply chains and those of its allies.
Today, Isembard has raised a $9M (£7M) seed round led by Notion Capital, backed by the UK Government’s National Security and Investment Fund (NSIIF) and the German Federal Government. Participating funds include 201 Ventures, Basis Capital, Forward Fund, Material Ventures, Neverlift Ventures and NP-Hard Ventures. Angel investors include Andreas Klinger (Product Hunt), Charlie Delingpole (ComplyAdvantage), Joshua Western (SpaceForge) and Salar al Khafaji (Monumental).
With the new funding, Isembard will expand its first factory, grow its engineering team, and scale its technology platform to provide defence, aerospace, energy, and other critical industries with faster, more reliable, and more cost-effective production.
How Isembard bridges the gap between software-driven efficiency and real-world production
Isembard, founded by Alex Fitzgerald in London in 2024, addresses the urgent need for modern, efficient, and resilient manufacturing in critical sectors. Drawing on Fitzgerald’s multidisciplinary background, the company aims to revolutionise the industry through a software-first, distributed model that leverages AI and automation for faster, greener, and more scalable production.
Isembard’s mission is to forge industrial acceleration, bridging the gap between software-driven efficiency and real-world production. The company is already working with fast-growing European defense and autonomy startups to deliver high-precision products faster, at lower costs, and with better quality assurance than traditional methods.
Alexander Fitzgerald, Founder and CEO of Isembard said: “Manufacturing is the backbone of economic prosperity, national security and our collective purpose as humanity. Yet our industrial base is dying. We’re building a new model, one that decentralises production while driving efficiency through software and automation. With support from top investors who share our vision, we are forging industrial acceleration for the West.”
The company’s proprietary Mason OS platform unifies every stage of manufacturing—from quoting and supply chain management to scheduling, machining, and billing, enabling rapid turnaround and high-precision production. Mason OS reduces quoting times from a week to a single day and machine setup from three days to one, allowing delivery of mission-critical parts in as little as three days.
Isembard’s franchise model empowers entrepreneurs to run their own high-tech machine shops, renting key equipment and hiring local talent while benefiting from Isembard’s technology, support, and access to national contracts. Franchisees benefit from lower overheads, recurring revenue from diverse industries, and financing support to launch and scale their businesses.
Isembard’s prototype factory opened in London’s Zone 3 on February 6, 2025, serving as a testbed for its distributed, software-first manufacturing model. The company aims to replicate this model across hundreds or thousands of sites in the UK, Europe, and North America, creating a resilient and scalable network of standardised, AI-optimised machine shops.
Jos White, General Partner at Notion Capital, added: “Isembard is tackling one of the hardest, most ambitious challenges today, bringing software-driven transformation to precision manufacturing. Alex and his team have the vision, technical expertise, and relentless execution needed to redefine this space. We’re excited to back them as they build a new industrial powerhouse.”
