ClearOps Raises $9.3M for AI After-Sales Platform

Jan de Vries · 2026-05-21

ClearOps, a Munich-based enterprise SaaS startup, just announced an $9.3 million Series A funding round. That's about €8.6 million for those keeping score. The round was led by Hitachi Ventures, with support from Schoeller Group and Barkawi Group. It's the company's first institutional capital raise, which is a big deal for any startup. ### Why After-Sales Matters More Than You Think You might not think much about what happens after you buy a machine. But for industrial manufacturers, after-sales is where the real money lives. It's not just about fixing things when they break. It's about keeping machines running, building customer loyalty, and driving profits. William Barkawi, founder and CEO of ClearOps, put it this way: "Industrial service networks are under increasing pressure. Machines are becoming more connected, customer expectations around uptime continue to rise, and global disruptions have exposed the limits of today's fragmented after-sales systems." He's right. When a critical part fails on a factory floor, every minute of downtime costs money. And if you can't get the right part to the right place fast, you're in trouble. That's where ClearOps comes in. ### What ClearOps Actually Does Founded in 2020, ClearOps is building what it calls the AI operating system for industrial after-sales. Think of it as a central brain that connects manufacturers, dealers, service partners, and machines on a single platform. It doesn't replace your existing systems. Instead, it pulls data from everywhere and makes sense of it. Here's what the platform does: - Predicts parts demand before it happens - Coordinates service operations in real time - Automates critical workflows across global networks - Connects everyone in the service supply chain The results are impressive. Across its customer networks, ClearOps has increased parts availability by up to 40%. It's driven 5-15% growth in parts sales and reduced repair times by up to two days. That's huge when you're dealing with machines that cost thousands of dollars an hour to keep idle. ### The Bigger Picture: A Market Ready for Change Industrial after-sales is a massive market, but it's stuck in the past. Most companies still rely on spreadsheets, emails, and phone calls to manage service operations. It's fragmented, manual, and slow. ClearOps is betting that AI can change all that. Pete Bastien, a partner at Hitachi Ventures, said: "We believe industrial after-sales is entering a fundamental transformation. As machines become increasingly connected and customer expectations around uptime continue to rise, traditional approaches to service operations will no longer be sufficient." ClearOps already works with big names like AGCO, Terex, Jungheinrich, and Lippert. That's a solid start. But with this new funding, the company is going after global growth. It plans to invest heavily in go-to-market capabilities, form strategic partnerships, and keep developing its AI platform. ### What's Next for ClearOps The company is headquartered in Munich, but it has offices in Lisbon, Atlanta, and San Jose. That gives it a foothold in both Europe and the U.S. It employs about 60 people globally, so it's still a relatively small team. But with $9.3 million in the bank, it's got the resources to scale. The vision is simple: keep the world's machines moving. By building an AI operating system for after-sales, ClearOps wants to ensure the right parts and services are available before downtime happens. That's a bold goal, but if the early results are any indication, they might just pull it off.