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Manufacturing: Helping Young Startups

Marcel Fejtek, COO 2 min read
One of Y Soft Ventures' unique values offered to young startups is manufacturing and logistical expertise. Sewio Networks, one of Venture’s portfolio of investments, provides a good example of how manufacturing can help accelerate a path to global markets.
 
Raising venture capital is not easy for most young CEOs. Once they do, the harder task is to go from a working concept or prototype to a manufactured product. For startups creating new innovations that include a hardware component (IoT, anyone?), the ability to get one’s hardware prototype manufactured is fraught with pitfalls.

Y Soft Ventures is part of Y Soft and can leverage its many capabilities. Today, we’ll talk about manufacturing in my area at Y Soft. It is very exciting to partner with young startups, help them on their way, and see them become successful in their own field.

Sewio Networks is a good example of how Y Soft can help young startups navigate the world of manufacturing. When Y Soft Ventures teamed up with Sewio, they had a prototype for their first real-time location system used for indoor positioning. Normally, a small startup would approach a manufacturer and arrange a small run of devices to be delivered.
 
 

HARDWARE MANUFACTURING CHALLENGES AND PITFALLS

There are many challenges and pitfalls in manufacturing. The two biggest ones can be summarized as finding a trusted supplier and the quality of the manufacturing.
 
  • Finding a trusted supplier: Most large-scale manufacturers are not set up to handle small orders. For a small startup looking for a short run, this presents a problem finding a suitable supplier. Even then, the startup is placing a lot of trust and money in a supplier with which he has no relationship.


​How we help: With Y Soft’s expertise and manufacturing capabilities, startups can rely on us to have their best interests at heart. After all, as investors, we have a financial stake in their success. For Sewio, Y Soft was able to go from working prototype to first mass-produced units 60% faster than what is typical with large-scale turnkey manufacturers. Our production services range from SMT (surface-mount technology) to final testing and packaging.
 

  • Quality of manufacturing: Outsourcing manufacturing of prototypes or mass production without knowledge of manufacturing processes or awareness of knockoff components can be detrimental.

How we help: Since Y Soft has been manufacturing its own hardware solutions for over 18 years, we have relationships with suppliers around the world, volume negotiating power, and the ability to secure deliveries on time.
 
With that experience comes the knowledge of identifying fake or poorly made components and the ability to source them when some components can have a lead time of more than six months. Startups like Sewio are guaranteed fast, quality results without paying a premium price.
 
 

COMPLETE TURNKEY SERVICES

When needed, we lend additional manufacturing support. In addition to prototyping, this might include housings, testing tools, and certifications. It also includes worldwide logistics services, where we can use our favorable shipping rates since we already ship our own products globally.

Because Y Soft Ventures invests in Eastern European countries, Y Soft's manufacturing and logistical services are local, and small-run manufacturing is not a problem with our capacity.
 
“Our participation with Y Soft Ventures started in 2015. Now we are successfully operating in over 37 countries around the world. Thanks to personal consultations with Y Soft managers, we have professionally entered the demanding industry segment of sustainable factory digitization where our technology is becoming a crucial part of customers’ long-term strategies. Sewio is leveraging Y Soft’s modern high-capacity production line, and our partnership ensures top-notch quality hardware and a quicker lead time,” said Luboš  Mráz, CTO of Sewio.


OFF TO A GREAT START

Since the first real-time location system during Sewio’s early days, the company now uses Y Soft manufacturing services for its entire range of indoor positioning solutions.

Having a quality, mass-produced product enabled Sewio to reach global markets faster. Today, Sewio has customers in 37 countries, and its products are distributed through a network of 71 partners in 30 countries. With that success, Sewio has expanded from the Czech Republic to additional offices in Germany and France.