Cyberwave, a startup focused on creating the operating layer between artificial intelligence and real-world machines, has successfully raised €7 million in a funding round led by **United Ventures**. The round also saw participation from **The TechShop**, as well as contributions from seed funds **Vento** and **Pi Campus**. This funding, announced ahead of the planned October 2025 launch of Cyberwave’s digital twins platform, will facilitate the expansion of its developer ecosystem and validate early enterprise use cases in sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, and inspections.
Founded by seasoned entrepreneurs **Simone Di Somma** and **Vittorio Banfi**, Cyberwave aims to position itself as a leader in Europe’s infrastructure for AI-powered automation. The integration of AI into physical environments has historically been slow and expensive, with unique APIs and specifications for each robot, sensor, or actuator. System integrators typically dominate these projects, rendering automation both rigid and costly. This fragmented landscape poses challenges, particularly as Europe grapples with labor shortages and increased pressure to enhance productivity and reinvigorate its industrial sector.
According to **McKinsey**, nearly **30 percent** of manufacturing tasks continue to be performed manually due to the complexities involved in integration. Meanwhile, **Bain** projects an **8 million** global shortage of manufacturing workers by **2030**. Cyberwave addresses these challenges by abstracting physical hardware into programmable digital twins, enabling developers to simulate, control, and orchestrate machines with minimal coding.
The company differentiates itself by providing a seamless developer experience, akin to how platforms like **GitHub** have simplified collaboration and **Hugging Face** has opened access to AI models. “Our goal is to bring the speed of digital software to the physical world,” stated **Di Somma**, co-founder and CEO of Cyberwave. “We want developers to treat machines the way they treat code—flexible, composable, and programmable.”
Di Somma further emphasized the barriers faced in achieving real automation within manufacturing. He noted that **76 percent** of mid-market manufacturers struggle with large-scale automation due to the rigidity and complexity of current systems. “Each change incurs downtime and integration issues, resulting in inflexible factories,” he explained. Cyberwave aims to alleviate these bottlenecks, allowing small teams to reconfigure physical production as rapidly as they can develop digital products.
At the heart of Cyberwave’s platform is a growing repository of digital twins, which operates as a two-sided marketplace. Hardware manufacturers can integrate their devices once, granting instant access to developers. Conversely, developers benefit from plug-and-play access to a diverse library of robotic systems, including industrial arms, drones, and sensors. The applications of this technology extend across both civilian and defense sectors, covering use cases such as defect rework on automated assembly lines, logistics packing optimization, drone inspections, and construction site monitoring.
The platform’s capacity to swiftly reconfigure physical systems is particularly relevant for the defense sector, which increasingly demands flexible and scalable production capabilities. **Massimiliano Magrini**, founder and managing partner at United Ventures, expressed confidence in Cyberwave’s potential, praising the combination of technical expertise, product vision, and entrepreneurial experience exhibited by Di Somma and Banfi. “With Cyberwave, they are tackling AI and robotics with a developer-first approach, focused on making robots useful and easy to use,” he stated.
**Aurelio Mezzotero**, founder and managing partner at The TechShop, echoed this sentiment, highlighting Cyberwave’s commitment to simplifying integration as a key factor in enabling true transformation. He stated, “Their customer-centric engineering approach will be instrumental in converting manual workflows into intelligent automation while building proprietary data foundations for strong customer retention and scalable growth.”
Initially targeting Europe’s manufacturing champions, Cyberwave plans to expand into the United States to support European manufacturers’ operations and leverage the reindustrialization momentum in North America. As the demand for automation continues to rise, Cyberwave’s innovative approach could play a pivotal role in shaping the future of AI integration within physical environments.
