Podium Automation has successfully raised a $18 million Series A funding round led by Construct Capital, with notable participation from Andreessen Horowitz. The company will utilize this capital injection to significantly expand its manufacturing capacity and scale up its engineering and operations teams
Podium Automation, a Brooklyn, NY-based manufacturer of custom UL 508A industrial control panels, has raised $18 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Construct Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z, which led the prior seed), Transition Ventures, Sunflower Capital, and Banter Capital. This brings Podium’s total funding to over $23 million (following a ~$5 million seed round in early 2025). Dayna Grayson, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Construct Capital, will join the board of directors.
What is Podium Automation?
Podium Automation addresses chronic pain points in the industrial control panel sector: long lead times (often months), inconsistent quality, manual processes, and supply chain opacity. Traditional panel builders rely heavily on manual drafting, assembly, and testing, leading to delays, errors, and variability that bottleneck customer projects in automation, energy, manufacturing, and infrastructure.
Podium’s model combines proprietary design to manufacturing (DTM) software, digital twins, and automated fabrication in a UL 508A certified facility (initially co-located with HQ in Brooklyn, with new US factories planned). Key features include:
- Fast quoting and design: Intuitive intake form yields custom pricing in ~24 hours; flat fee design covers layout, schematics, and BOM with revisions.
- Accelerated production: PO to shipment in under 4 weeks (vs. industry norms of 12+ weeks), enabled by software that catches issues early, automates component selection/wiring instructions, CNC machining, and wire processing.
- Quality and transparency: Machine augmented builds with human QA/UL verification, full point to point/power-on testing, and real time tracking. Customers own the final drawings.
- Payment terms: Design fees upfront; builds typically 50% down, 50% on shipment.
The company positions itself as a design build partner for both build to print and full design services, serving scale-ups and Fortune 500s across sectors like industrial manufacturing, warehouse automation, energy storage, transport/rail, aerospace, and advanced nuclear/fusion.
Who founded Podium Automation?
- Jamie Niu Serota (Co-Founder & CEO): Background in commercial strategy, business operations at Bowery Farming, Blue Origin, and Tesla.
- Jacob Buser (Co-Founder & CTO): Hardware engineering leadership at Bowery Farming and Turbo-Fil Packaging.
- Early team includes software engineering talent from Bowery Farming, emphasizing orchestration of automation, workflows, and machinery integration.
The team draws from high velocity operations environments, aligning with Podium’s “speed is a feature” value alongside customer focus, transparency, and team oriented execution.
Control panels are foundational “backbone” components for industrial automation, robotics, energy systems, and infrastructure. Demand is rising with reshoring, automation adoption, data centers, renewables, and advanced manufacturing, yet the supply side remains fragmented and analog. Podium’s software driven approach reduces variability, improves consistency, and scales capacity faster than traditional shops. Testimonials highlight faster quotes/designs, cost optimization suggestions, and elimination of bottlenecks.
Case studies demonstrate impact: multiple panels for sawmills, warehouse integrators, thermal energy storage (e.g., Fourth Power), rail, aerospace, and nuclear projects, often delivered in weeks with no commissioning issues.
Recommended: Town Raises $55 Million In Series A Funding Round
The Series A will fund:
- Rapid expansion of manufacturing capacity (new factories).
- Growth of engineering and operations teams.
- Continued investment in the core software platform for design, automation, and supply chain management.
This aligns with strong early traction (30+ panels delivered in under a year post founding) and rising demand. Investors like Construct Capital (focused on foundational industrial infrastructure) and a16z’s American Dynamism see Podium as modernizing a critical, under innovated sector.
- Growth Potential: By compressing lead times dramatically while maintaining or improving quality/certification, Podium can capture share in high growth verticals and become a preferred partner for time sensitive projects. Expanding factories should enable higher volume and geographic reach.
- Moat: Proprietary DTM software + digital twins creates defensibility through faster iteration, error reduction, and data advantages over manual competitors. Automation reduces labor dependency and variability.
- Risks and Challenges: Scaling hardware manufacturing involves capital intensity, supply chain management (components, enclosures), maintaining UL standards at volume, and competition from established players or new entrants. Execution on new facilities and talent acquisition will be key.
- Broader Context: Fits the wave of “factory of the future” and American Dynamism investments, applying software/automation to physical industries for resilience and efficiency. Early customer mix (innovative energy/tech + traditional industrial) provides diversification.
The $18M Series A validates Podium’s traction and positions it to scale operations aggressively in a market where speed and reliability directly translate to customer uptime and project velocity. The combination of strong founding team, credible investors, and clear product market fit in an essential industrial niche supports a compelling growth thesis.
Please email us your feedback and news tips at hello(at)dailycompanynews.com
