In an industrial shop near downtown Montreal, a startup is seeking to revolutionize how businesses use machines on the factory floor.

Vention Inc. is trying to make robotics more accessible to companies of all sizes with a combination of

Nvidia Corp. -powered computers and hardware that can be designed online and assembled somewhat like a Lego set. Founder Etienne Lacroix says he believes his company holds part of the solution for helping U.S. manufacturers boost their production efficiently.

But the industry has been thrown into uncertainty after the White House last week launched an investigation into imports of robotics, a first step before possible

tariffs . To Lacroix, the policy seems flawed. The U.S. move “might be a contradiction with the goal of reshoring manufacturing to North America and specifically to the United States,” he said. “One of the keys to be able to bring back manufacturing, while maintaining the price that customers are expecting to get, will be automation.”

President Donald Trump is using tariffs to try to lure more factories and break U.S. reliance on suppliers in China and other countries. But it’s unclear whether U.S. companies will be able to find enough willing workers. There were about 465,000 job openings in the sector in July, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Manufacturers are also dealing with a wave of retiring employees: roughly a quarter of U.S. factory workers are over the age of 54, according to a note published last year by the Council on Foreign Relations.

Vention’s core product is based on software with artificial intelligence functions that help power collaborative robots — sometimes called “cobots” — that can work safely alongside humans, doing repetitive jobs that are difficult or boring.

The systems are currently used for tasks such as handling, welding and assembling, but they can take on many other things. One of them is designed to sandblast wooden cabinet doors

— a tedious job requiring much experience on the part of a worker to achieve a perfect finish. 3M Co. works with Vention not only to automate some of its end-of-line manufacturing activities, but also to offer 3M customers robotic solutions beyond its sandpaper products.

Vention’s customers span a range of industries and also include Apple Inc., Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. and GE Aerospace.

Hershey Co. , the American chocolate and candy-maker, was looking to address some challenges such as labour availability and operational efficiency, so it began working with Vention in 2023 to automate tasks such as palletizing and material handling. The company now plans to have 15 Vention-powered robotic cells by the end of the year.

“By introducing collaborative robotics through partners like Vention, we’re not only reducing manual and repetitive tasks but also enhancing workplace safety and employee satisfaction,” Hershey said in an emailed statement.

A Vention cobot cell — including the robotic arm, the work station and the computer — can cost as little as US$50,000 for simply moving parts around, though it’s much more for machines that complete more complicated tasks. The robotic arm is supplied by players such as ABB, Fanuc or Universal Robots A/S, depending on the customer’s needs, and Vention markets the product in an all-in-one package with its structural components and software engineering.

Lacroix was introduced in his late teens to traditional industrial automation while working in the engineering department of a local Quebec company, then became an engineer and consultant. In 2014, he realized it was possible to design in 3D, program and simulate a machine on a Web browser. “That unlocked everything,” he said. Two years later, he started Vention along with Max Windisch and Francois Giguere, and found early individual investors to start building a product.

Since then, the technology has attracted the attention of major venture capital and private investment firms. Vention is backed by the Canadian unit of Fidelity, Bain Capital Venture Partners and Canada’s Georgian Partners, among others.

The company got another boost in 2023 when it started working with Nvidia. Vention’s next technology plans involve using Nvidia processors to give robots more autonomy, reducing the cost of programming and the number of sensors or cameras needed. Meetings between the companies are held weekly.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang showcased Vention at Computex 2024, a technology trade show held annually in Taiwan, alongside better-known players such as Teradyne Robotics.

The partnership gives Vention “access to foundational models that we would not have access to that quickly,” said Lacroix, and it provides Nvidia with another way to test its technology. For Vention, using AI is key to unlocking growth because it should allow customers to get faster payback on their investment. “If you’re a small business, there’s too much uncertainty in the world that you’re going to bet two years up front,” he said.

“The integration is the primary cost,” said Julie Shah, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she has been running an AI and robotics lab over the past 15 years. “It’s not the robot, but it’s everything that it takes to make that robot useful.” Generative AI has the potential to help bring down the cost of automation, she said.

Vention has raised so far US$155 million and is now working on another round of about US$100 million before pursuing an IPO sometime in the next five years. Its executives say it generates more than US$60 million annually — about 75 per cent from the U.S. market.

“We’re heavily investing in R&D, and as the bulk of R&D is done, you get closer to being able to go public,” said Lacroix, who foresees a moment when it will become challenging to raise large sums of private capital. “There’s a certain amount of scale and maturity that you need before that.”

Bain Capital Ventures came in as an early investor in Vention. The venture capital arm of the Boston-based investment firm had backed the mobile robotic fulfillment system Kiva Systems, which later became Amazon Robotics.

Ajay Agarwal, a partner with BCV, said Vention’s “plug-and-play system” provides a solution to help smaller manufacturers to get bigger.

“You can’t afford to hire a systems integrator to come in and design custom automation that works perfectly for your factory,” he said. “We’re seeing more onshoring, reshoring, deglobalization, and the only way a factory in the U.S. or Canada ends up being competitive with a factory in Asia is going to be through automation. So it’s driving massive demand.”

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