EthonAI Inspector: AI-Powered Surface Defect Detection in Electronics Manufacturing

EthonAI, based in Zurich, Switzerland and founded in 2021 by CEO Julian Senoner and CTO Bernhard Kratzwald, offers the EthonAI Inspector—a visual AI inspection platform that detects surface defects in electronics manufacturing. The system is trained using customer-supplied imagery of defect-free products and can then identify defects automatically during production and assembly. EthonAI's software integrates with existing manufacturing workflows to combine data from sensors and production records, building a comprehensive picture of quality across facilities and enabling comparison of performance across multiple sites to identify improvement opportunities. High-profile customers include Siemens and chocolate-maker Lindt. The company also works with a leading semiconductor producer to merge multiple datasets and uncover previously unknown relationships between processes, equipment, and yield rates. EthonAI raised CHF 15 million ($16.5 million) in Series A funding in May 2024 led by Index Ventures, with participation from General Catalyst, Earlybird and Founderful. The company was named Inventor of the Year by Siemens, reflecting the depth of their partnership in industrial AI quality management.