Today, keeping costs low in manufacturing is only possible in high volume production. Making one part a million times solves the unit economics.
Our mission is to build the autonomous factory—using AI and automation at every step to make high-mix, low-volume manufacturing as fast, cost-effective, and scalable as mass production.
Labor is the driving force
In low-volume domestic production, every new part requires skilled machinists to spend hours quoting, programming, setting up, and inspecting before a spindle ever cuts metal.
In China, tariffs and logistics drive cost
Offshoring to escape domestic labor trades human touchpoints for trade barriers, geographic delay, and freight overhead:
Ours is a march towards zero-touch manufacturing
Creating a zero-touch factory requires software-defined approaches and strict standardization
Instant STEP/STL geometry parsing, bounding-box volume extraction, and thin-wall / tool-reach collision rules.
Multi-body assembly auto-separation, automatic tolerance stack analysis, and sub-minute programmatic quoting.
Generative DFM co-pilot that automatically suggests topology & machining modifications directly back into customer CAD systems.
Algorithmic toolpath generation for 2.5D and 3D prismatic features against a standardized 28-tool carousel on Brother Speedio cells.
Closed-loop collision avoidance, kinematic simulation, and dynamic spindle load prediction trained on real cutting telemetry.
Zero-human CAM generation: continuous reinforcement learning optimization minimizing cycle time and tool wear across the entire fleet.
Standardized bar/plate sizes (6061-T6 aluminum) kept in local buffer inventory; automated cut-list generation for stock prep.
Direct API integration with metal distributors for automated JIT ordering and algorithmic nesting across queued customer jobs.
Automated robotic stock loading from raw delivery racks directly into CNC saw and pallet stations with zero manual handling.
Standardized pneumatic zero-point baseplates and quick-change vices, eliminating custom soft-jaw machining for Op 1 & Op 2.
Robotic arm / pallet pool automated tending for lights-out part flipping, stock swapping, and continuous multi-job cycling.
Fully autonomous cell clusters: mobile robots tending high-density tool carousels, raw stock, and finished parts across 20+ spindles.
Renishaw spindle wireless touch probing for datum setup, in-machine feature verification, and critical bore measurement.
In-situ optical computer vision for surface finish/burr inspection + automated optical CMM scan station with automated pass/fail tagging.
Closed-loop in-process tool compensation: telemetry automatically updates spindle offsets mid-cut, ensuring 100% Cpk compliance.
Standardized chamfering toolpaths cut in-machine, followed by batch vibratory tumbling and ultrasonic degreasing.
Automated parts washing and robotic pick-and-place into standardized modular protective packaging.
Automated packaging cell: robotic barcoding, protective boxing, and instant carrier label generation without human hands.
Automated PDF generation combining CAD bounding metadata, material mill certs, and touch-probe inspection logs.
AS9102-compliant First Article Inspection (FAI) reports auto-generated from optical metrology and spindle telemetry logs.
Full cryptographic digital twin for every manufactured part: complete traceability from raw ingot melt to finished aerospace delivery.
Unit economics is solved without scale
Automating towards zero-touch brings mass-production margins to low-volume parts
Market opportunity
Due to the market fragmentation, we think we can carve a venture-scale business from existing precision manufacturing market and we want to be positioned to ride the robotics manufacturing wave.
Morgan Stanley projects the humanoid robot market will reach $5T by 2050 (nearly 1B robots). Scaling physical robot production requires unprecedented precision machining throughput—actuator housings, cycloidal gearboxes, and structural limbs—that traditional labor-constrained shops cannot deliver. Elroy provides the capital-scalable, software-defined manufacturing backbone to ride this wave from day-one prototypes to high-volume humanoid fleets.
Roadmap
Growth happens across five distinct axes—all essential to expanding our initial machining beachhead into a fully autonomous factory network.
Software automation: CAD engine, CAM toolpaths engine, instant quoting, touch probing, and standardization of workholding
Robotic automation: inventory management, robotic transfers, automated deburring cleaning, computer vision QA and automated CMM (coordinate measuring machine).
Zero-touch autonomous factory with automated stock-to-dock routing and closed-loop self-correction.
Precision 3-axis & 5-axis CNC machining for high-mix aluminum, brass, and engineering plastics.
Wire EDM, fiber laser cutting, precision sheet metal forming, and custom aluminum extrusions.
Rapid injection molding, die casting, stamping, flex/rigid PCBs, and full electromechanical subassemblies.
Commercial hardware, robotics startups, automation R&D labs, and fast-turn engineering prototypes.
Certified Aerospace (AS9100) and Defense platforms (ITAR compliant) unlocking high-margin mission contracts.
Medical devices & surgical robotics (ISO 13485), semiconductor tooling, and critical national infrastructure.
Single-cell high-mix, low-volume (HMLV) precision prototyping with fast 24–48 hour turnaround.
Multi-cell factory operations with automated load balancing and intelligent dispatch across cells.
Unified production platform simultaneously mastering high-mix low-volume and low-mix high-volume mass production.
On-demand rapid contract manufacturing via direct digital portal and marketplace channel aggregation.
High-volume enterprise contract manufacturing programs with dedicated capacity and programmatic supply agreements.
Full-stack vertical integration: manufacturing, assembling, and selling proprietary end-to-end products on our own surfaces.
Founder
Alex Stillwell
Product-driven UX leader currently at Google. Track record of taking complex technologies from zero-to-one to massive scale across consumer, hardware, and multi-billion-dollar enterprise platforms.
Google Commerce, Google Fi & Google Assistant
Led product UX at Google across mission-critical commerce and ads experiences connecting consumer demand with merchant infrastructure. Previously drove core UX on Google Fi (nationwide cellular systems & hardware integration) and Google Assistant (conversational AI agents).
Early-Stage Startups
Co-founded a vacation rental startup, building the product from zero-to-one. Worked both UX and engineering at an early-stage, venture-backed energy startup.
Raising Our Pre-Seed Round
Pre-seed capital will allow us to measure a few core metrics
Unit Economics
How cheaply can we make a part with automation? How scalable is the number of orders?
Automation Rate
At what rate can we automate the process, eliminate labor, and increase spindle time.
CapEx Economics
What is the return on assets, how quickly can demand meet machine capacity, and how fast can we deploy machines?
Autonomous Machining Cell
Complete a fully autonomous, lights-out 2-operation part machining cell.
$2M Annualized Revenue at >50% Gross Margin
Achieve $2M in annualized part-manufacturing revenue at greater than 50% gross margin.
Multi-Machine Fleet Validation
Validate multi-machine orchestration across an identical cell fleet.
Thank You.
Building the future of autonomous precision manufacturing.
Appendix
Table of Contents
Appendix A1: Cost Breakdown of Producing a Part
The $81 cost difference per part stems from nine distinct operational phases:
| Fulfillment Stage | Traditional Cost | Elroy Cost | Savings | Traditional Friction | Elroy Automated Process |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Quoting & DFM | $9.00–$12.00 (6-8%) | <$0.50 | 90–95% | Machinists spend 20–45 mins inspecting prints & calculating bounds manually. | Part is roughly analyzed from a raw stock & spindle time based on AI-CAM engine generated toolpaths. Parts are only accepted initially if they fit our standard part size. |
| 2. CAM Programming | $27.00–$37.50 (18-25%) | <$1.50 | 95–98% | Programmers spend 1.5–3.0 hrs setting planes, feeds, speeds & collision checks. | AI-CAM engine generate toolpaths from CAD based on machine, tools, and algo checks on things like tool depth, feeds, and speeds |
| 3. Setup & Calibration | $18.00–$27.00 (12-18%) | ~$2.00 | 85–90% | Operators manually load bespoke tools, measure lengths & dial in offsets. | Machines are standardized (Brother Speedio S500Xd2) with the same standard set of tools that accomplish all the primary types of cutting. Wireless touch probes before every part is machined. |
| 4. Workholding & Stock | $12.00–$18.00 (8-12%) | ~$2.50 | 75–85% | Machining custom aluminum soft jaws for every unique part profile. | Robot arm places stock into machine. Standard raw stock sizes simplified workholding for OP1 and can be held with standard pneumatic vices |
| 5. Op 1 Cutting | $25.00–$30.00 (20-25%) | ~$18.00 | 20–35% | Machinists run conservative parameters & manually monitor for chatter. | OP1 is the more complicated operation and does the bulk of the machining. OP1 leaves small "hat" that is then surface removed after. |
| 6. Part Flipping (Op 2) | $12.00–$15.00 (8-10%) | ~$3.00 | 70–80% | Manual spindle stoppage, part extraction, chip clearing & secondary re-probing. | Part is flipped via robot arm and moved to a second machine with peg clamp vise and pneumatic secondary vise. OP2 is primarily surfacing or minor back operations. Complicated soft jaws can be 3d printed when needed. |
| 7. Deburring & Cleaning | $6.00–$10.50 (4-7%) | ~$1.00 | 80–90% | Technicians hand-scrape edges with deburring blades & manually wash solvent. | As per part specification, any secondary operations like deburring or cleaning of the part is handled seperately like automated chamfer paths and batch tumbling. |
| 8. Metrology & QA | $12.00–$18.00 (8-12%) | ~$2.50 | 75–85% | QA inspectors manually measure dimensions with micrometers & key reports. | Part is transfered via robot arm into the coordinate-measuring machine that optically and touch probes to ensure the part was manufactured to the tollerances given by the engineer documents. |
| 9. Packaging & Dispatch | $4.50–$7.50 (3-5%) | ~$1.50 | 50–60% | Manual boxing, paper slip printing & manual carrier portal entries. | Slips are automatically printed, part is transfered into standard box size and labeled created via carrier API |
| Total Unit Cost | $122.00 | $41.00 | 66% Net Savings | Labor + Raw Materials + Consumables + CapEx | Raw Materials + Consumables + CapEx |
Appendix A2: CapEx Requirements
With zero-touch manufacturing, scale is a function of CapEx and the speed of deployment of CapEx, where the primary CapEx is the CNC machine. The whole game becomes optimizing 1) how many hours the spindle is running, and 2) how much money we make from an hour of spindle time.
Appendix A3: Production-based financial model
| Period | Machines | Lease + Space | Tooling + Power | Total OpEx | Gross Rev | Net Profit / Mo | Cumulative Cash | Annualized Revenue |
|---|