The archive · AI & Models · Product decision · 2024–2026
Atira's unsexy bet: AI agents turn industrial RFQs into bids
Munich's Atira raised $17.5M to automate industrial sales engineering; ABB E-mobility, Chiron and Robel now use its AI agents in production
Atira
What the business is
Atira is a Munich startup whose AI agents work across a manufacturer's existing CRM, ERP and configure-price-quote systems: they read incoming requests for quotation, extract and flag requirements, help configure feasible products and draft the technical and commercial documents for a bid, while routing unresolved questions to human specialists.
Starting capital：A $17.5M financing announced in early September 2026: a $15M seed led by Accel plus a previously undisclosed $2.5M pre-seed, with UVC Partners, Fortino and BOOOM participating; individual backers include Whirlpool chairman and CEO Marc Bitzer and Celonis co-founder and co-CEO Bastian Nominacher.
How it started
Florian Diegruber, formerly Palantir's commercial lead for industrial accounts in German-speaking Europe, and August DuMont Schütte, a Google software engineer, founded Atira in Munich in November 2024 with a broad thesis around European reindustrialization. After exploring that space they settled on quoting software, which Diegruber called "very unsexy back then, which is always a good place to start a venture."
What happened
Atira built an AI orchestration layer targeting what it estimates is more than $128 billion in annual global labor spending on industrial sales engineering, work that still moves through PDFs, spreadsheets and inboxes. It launched commercially in November 2025 and signed its early customers through founder-led selling with no commercial hires; by September 2026 Accel had led a $15M seed alongside a previously undisclosed $2.5M pre-seed, and roughly 15 customers were using the platform in production.
How it ended up
Still early: the capital funds Atira's first non-founder commercial hires, engineering and US expansion, with the company arguing that the winner of the emerging industrial-AI category will be whoever orchestrates the whole bid process rather than automating one step of it.
Background
Atira is a Munich startup founded in November 2024 by Florian Diegruber, formerly Palantir's commercial lead for industrial accounts in German-speaking Europe, and August DuMont Schütte, a Google software engineer. The founders started with a broad thesis about European reindustrialization and then chose one of the least automated workflows in manufacturing: sales engineering, the work of turning a customer's request for quotation into a priced, buildable bid.
Atira's AI agents operate across manufacturers' existing CRM, ERP and configure-price-quote systems. They read incoming requests, extract and flag requirements, help configure feasible products, and draft the technical and commercial documents for a bid, routing unresolved questions to human specialists. Atira estimates the addressable workflow represents more than $128 billion in annual global labor spending.
Atira launched commercially in November 2025 and closed about 15 customers through founder-led selling, including ABB E-mobility, Chiron Group, Robel, Rema Tip Top, Theegarten-Pactec and Fette Compacting. In September 2026 it announced a $17.5M financing, a $15M seed led by Accel plus a previously undisclosed $2.5M pre-seed. Chiron reports an 80% reduction in ask-to-bid time and Robel reports saving 95 hours per quotation.
What has to be true
- Industrial sales engineering is a huge labor pool that software never automated, so even partial automation converts directly into hours and revenue for manufacturers
- Running inside CRM, ERP and CPQ systems lets manufacturers delegate to AI agents without replacing the infrastructure they already trust
- Closing production customers with zero commercial hires proved real demand before Atira spent any seed money on a sales team
- Each reviewed bid adds requirements, configurations and expert answers to a knowledge base, compounding the platform's value over time
What can be applied
Automate the workflow everyone else skips: Atira won manufacturers with a "commercial brain" for quoting, founder-sold and running on existing systems, before the category had a name
Aftermath
As of September 2026, Atira is in production at roughly 15 manufacturers: ABB E-mobility has deployed it globally, Chiron Group runs it across more than 70 users, and Robel uses over 20 agents across 18 departments, reporting 95 hours saved per request. The team grew from four employees to about fifteen and plans nine more hires plus its first US pilot customer. Atira has not published revenue or pricing; the seed round is a bet that founder-led, unglamorous quoting can become a durable software category as European manufacturers adopt AI.
Sources
- Munich-based Atira raises 15 million USD seed round to automate industrial sales engineering
- Atira raises $17.5M to bring AI orchestration to industrial sales
- Atira raises $17.5M after landing industrial customers without a sales team
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