Steel, refining, and chemical plants lose billions annually to operational inefficiency, and the problem is accelerating. U.S. industrial sites waste nearly two-thirds of their primary energy in generation and conversion, totaling hundreds of billions in losses each year. Meanwhile, experienced operators are retiring faster than they can be replaced, taking decades of institutional knowledge with them.
This convergence of workforce erosion and systemic inefficiency creates an urgent need for technology that can both preserve operational expertise and unlock massive efficiency gains. The stakes are enormous: addressing operational waste in heavy industry represents a pathway to reducing over a gigaton of CO2 emissions globally.
Archimetis is addressing this by deploying AI agents that work alongside operators to optimize complex industrial processes in real-time. Their systems learn from operational patterns, predict equipment failures before they occur, and continuously adjust parameters to reduce energy waste and emissions. Rather than replacing human expertise, Archimetis’ agents augment it, capturing institutional knowledge while enabling the precision and speed that modern industrial operations demand.
As Archimetis officially comes out of stealth, MCJ is thrilled to share that we are a two-time investor in the company, including a Pre-seed investment alongside Homebrew and a Seed investment alongside Inspired Capital. Keep reading to learn more about our conviction in the Archimetis team.
What is Archimetis?
Unlike traditional industrial software that requires manual configuration and constant human oversight, Archimetis’ operational reasoning system autonomously diagnoses inefficiencies, models process adjustments, and iterates toward optimal solutions, learning continuously from live sensor data and operational outcomes.
The platform functions as a reasoning agent: it doesn’t just flag problems, it understands context, evaluates tradeoffs, and recommends actions that balance efficiency, safety, and emissions targets. Archimetis achieves this by combining large language models (LLMs) with proprietary scenario modeling and multi-modal sensor integration, interpreting complex operational data the way an experienced engineer would, but at machine speed and scale.
Archimetis is already piloting with several facilities, including a steel pipe plant in Houston operated by MCJ LP Borusan. Early pilots are targeting 15-30% reductions in unplanned downtime and 12% improvements in energy efficiency, gains that translate to millions in avoided losses at facilities where downtime can cost over $1 million per hour.
Why Did We Invest?
Our investment in Archimetis stems from several key factors, one of which is the exemplary founding team with unique insight into the low-level details of how large industrial plants operate, as well as the acumen to develop elegant software solutions.
Founder-Market Fit
Paul Manwell (CEO & Co-Founder) is a mechanical engineer by training with a degree from Rice University. Paul spent the early part of his career working with energy companies, building analytic tools for clients as a consultant for Accenture. He spent over a decade at Google in a number of high-visibility executive roles, including Chief of Staff to the CEO, and later Senior Director of Product. In the latter role, he oversaw internal data and analytics, having founded a data warehouse and dashboards that unified updates for C-level executives. Paul grew his team to 140 people and led a cross-functional team of product managers, UX designers, and data scientists.
Aaron Brown (CTO & Co-Founder) has a background in Computer Science from Harvard (AB) and Berkeley (MS & PhD). Aaron spent several years at IBM where his focus was AI and analytics. He then went on to spend over 12 years at Google in executive product management roles. Notably, he worked on the development of the Knowledge Graph in Google Search and led the engineering team responsible for that product’s data infrastructure. In his last role as a Senior Director of Product Management, Aaron led an over-sixty person product team that was responsible for Google’s internal developer infrastructure.
Positive Signal From Heavy Industry Players
Borusan, an LP in the MCJ fund, is an industrial conglomerate with businesses spanning steel production, automotive manufacturing, energy development, and others. We introduced Borusan to Archimetis, and the ventures team expressed great excitement (and an interest in investing) in what Archimetis is building. They not only believe in the value proposition but also aim to play an active role in helping spur adoption among other heavy industry players. Archimetis is already piloting with several facilities, including a steel pipe plant in Houston operated by Borusan. We view Borusan’s informed interest as another strong signal of the opportunity Archimetis is pursuing.
Additional Resources
Hopefully the experienced operators are writing stuff down in a way that the LLM can read before they retire.
Also how they handle proprietary information vs learning lessons that’ll help future sites.
much fun to work together on this one