Rebuilding America and the World’s Industrial Backbone With AI

Nexxa.ai raises $9M Seed round to turbocharge specialized AI for the heavy industries

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Nexxa.ai, founded in 2024 and building specialized AI agents for heavy industries, today announced a $9 million seed round led by Construct Capital with significant participation from a16z speedrun and existing investors. This brings Nexxa.ai’s total funding to $14 million, including a prior $4.4 million pre-seed driven by a16z speedrun with participation from Augment Ventures, Propeller Ventures, Plug and Play, Beat Ventures, SBI, Untapped Ventures, Cross Atlantic Angels, and angels including Rick Berry and Pat McCarthy.

AI for the industrial backbone
The backbone of America was built by industrial engineers who design and maintain rail networks, factories, construction projects, heavy machinery, transportation systems, and more. Yet many still rely on fragmented, homegrown software and manual processes to do this work. Rather than replacing existing engineering tools, Nexxa’s AI platform runs on top of them, supporting engineers as it modernizes core infrastructure.

“Everyone talks about AI disrupting white-collar work. The real opportunity is strengthening the backbone of the economy,” said Philipp Wehn, co-founder and CEO of Nexxa.ai. “America is in a race to rebuild heavy industry, so we’re making AI native to industrial engineering and operations, bringing it directly into the existing tools and workflows industrial companies use every day, so they can lead and grow their company in a way they never could before.“

Powering rail, construction, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure
Nitro, Nexxa’s multi-agent orchestration platform, enables Nexxa Forward Deployed Engineers to specialize and deliver highly resilient, complex AI into core heavy-industry workflows.

“Nexxa is tackling a vital problem: how do you modernize the core industrial base without ripping out everything that already works?” said Camila Key Saruhashi, Early Stage Venture at Construct Capital. “The team has shown that when you deliver AI that plugs into real workflows and drives measurable ROI in weeks, even traditional industries are ready to move fast.”

“Nexxa.ai is taking specialized AI out of the lab and putting it to work in heavy industry,” said Sonali Vijayavargiya, Managing Partner at Augment Ventures. “They are delivering measurable ROI in rail, construction, and manufacturing sectors where complexity has historically slowed adoption. That ability to translate AI into real operating leverage gives us conviction that Nexxa can build a category-defining company.”

“What impressed us is how quickly Nexxa turned AI into hard business outcomes for rail, construction, and manufacturing customers,” said Andrew Chen, General Partner at a16z speedrun. “This new capital will help them scale into the core sectors that define America’s competitiveness across customers and workflows.“

From Industry 4.0 to a 10x industrial revolution
Nexxa sees the industrial base at a technology inflection point, where industry-specific AI can enable agents to handle the non-standard, high-complexity workflows of heavy industries. Nexxa Nitro orchestrates these agents through a rule-based management console, keeping AI-driven work compliant, explainable, and aligned with operational standards, while Forward Deployed Engineering teams deploy solutions in weeks without accelerating mission-critical systems.

As U.S. heavy industries face rising costs, workforce shifts, and growing infrastructure and energy demands, Nexxa has shown that outcome-driven AI can move even slow adopters and is now preparing to scale revenue 10x in 2026, supported by this new funding.

Enterprises already trusting Nexxa include Siemens, Matikon, and others who are still under NDA, with the platform also available through the Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace.

About Nexxa.ai
Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Nexxa.ai is an AI company for heavy industries, rebuilding the industrial backbone with specialized AI agents that augment industrial operations and deliver measurable ROI in weeks.

To learn more or request a demo, visit www.nexxa.ai.

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SOURCE Nexxa.ai