Powerhouse Ventures leads investment in CVector’s novel AI solution for energy intensive industries.
NEW YORK, Jan. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CVector announces an oversubscribed $5 million USD seed round led by Powerhouse Ventures, with participation by Fusion Fund, Hitachi Ventures, Myriad Venture Partners, and Schematic Ventures. CVector will use the funds to accelerate hiring in sales and product development and assist customers in scaling their current deployments.
Founded in November 2024 by industry veterans from Shell and CERN, CVector is already deployed across public utilities, advanced manufacturing, and chemical production. Its customers include ATEK Metals, known for operational excellence in complex metals processing as well as chemical companies like Ammobia, which is reinventing centuries old production processes.
“CVector’s AI native solution provides real time recommendations in the context of dynamic feedstocks, operating metrics, and customer demand,” says Richard Zhang, co-founder and CEO. “CVector sharpens decision-making around optimal production, ensuring every action is grounded in improved economics.”
Using high-resolution supply chain, control system, and market data, CVector generates prioritized recommendations based on economic models tailored to each facility’s operating parameters, evaluating every option by its impact on profitability.
“Contextualized industrial data may be the fuel for AI, but CVector is the only solution which addresses the additional issues of economic optimization and accessibility by end users,” says Emily Kirsch, Founder and Managing Partner of Powerhouse Ventures. “Addressing all three issues is required in the new generation of AI industrial software for improved decision making in production environments.”
CVector learns from operator behavior, tailoring recommendations based on how teams actually work. The result is faster root-cause analysis, smarter troubleshooting, and proactive system planning—all grounded in long-term historical trends and physical system understanding. These types of hybrid solutions augment human operators and engineers with AI-powered recommendations that are precisely targeted to drive measurable operational and economic improvements.
