AI startup CVector raises $5M for its industrial ‘nervous system’

Summary

Industrial AI startup CVector built a brain and nervous system for big industry. Now, founders Richard Zhang and Tyler Ruggles are tasked with a bigger challenge: showing customers and investors how this AI-powered software layer translates to real savings on an industrial scale. The New York-based startup has had some success following its pre-seed funding round last July. Its system is now running with real customers, including public utilities, advanced manufacturing facilities, and chemical producers. It’s given the duo more concrete examples of what problems they can solve — and money they can save — for their big industry clients “One of the core things we’re witnessing,” he said, is customers “really lack the tool to translate a small action, like turning on and off a valve, [into] did that just save me money?” As a homeowner with bills to pay, it’s a bit unnerving to think about one nondescript valve making such a big difference in the bottom line of a company and its customers. But it’s examples like this that helped CVector reach a new milestone, as it has now closed a $5 million seed round, Zhang and Ruggles told TechCrunch. The financing was led by Powerhouse Ventures and included a mix of venture and strategic backing, with participation from early stage funds like Fusion Fund and Myriad Venture Partners, as well as Hitachi’s corporate venture arm. With the funding round closed, CVector is talking a bit more about some of its first customers — and just how different they are. “The joy of the last, say, six to eight months has been going to the industrial heartland, to all of these places that are just in the middle of nowhere, but have massive production plants that are either reinventing themselves or really transforming how they make decisions,” Zhang said in an interview. Techcrunch event San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026 One of those customers is a metals processing company based in Iowa called ATEK Metal Technologies, which makes aluminum casting...