Teknor Apex becomes the American anchor for a new fund to build and scale industrial software champions.

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(Teknor Apex, Pawtucket, RI USA, April 28, 2026) Teknor Apex Company, a global leader in material science solutions, today announced it has joined as a founding partner in OSS Ventures’ new investment fund, targeting €75 million to scale proven industrial software companies across North America and Europe.

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Building Software Where It Matters: On the Manufacturing Floor

Founded in 2019 by Renan Devillieres, OSS Ventures is a venture studio building next-generation industrial software that operates at the intersection of software development and manufacturing operations. The firm’s thesis is straightforward: industrial software only drives lasting change when it’s built from the manufacturing floor up - alongside the operators, supervisors, and engineers who use it daily.

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With OSS Ventures now expanding operations beyond Europe to its new office in Boston, MA, Teknor Apex will serve as the regional industrial anchor partner, becoming the first U.S. manufacturer to both invest in and operate OSS portfolio software at scale.

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“This partnership reflects a shared view that the future advancements in industry will be innovated by people and technology working in tandem to create measurable impacts” said Donald Wiseman, CEO, Teknor Apex. “Industrial software companies scale best when paired with manufacturing partners capable of deploying technology in real production environments, and we are committed to building stronger, more direct connections between venture innovation, our people, and the plant floors exponentially on a daily basis.”

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Teknor Apex: From Co-Builder to Co-Investor

This partnership started on the factory floor. Teknor Apex and OSS Ventures began working together on venture building and investment activities across the U.S. and Europe. As that relationship deepened, Teknor Apex — a 100 year-old material science company that’s continually evolving — did something most corporate investors don’t: they ran the software themselves. 

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The company launched a multi-site digital transformation program across its own manufacturing operations - deploying OSS portfolio software to strengthen workforce enablement, operational visibility, and cross-site collaboration. What Teknor Apex found confirmed what OSS Ventures had built its model around: software designed on the factory floor performs differently than software designed for it.

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Teknor Apex deployed three of OSS Ventures’ portfolio companies in their Rhode Island and Tennessee sites. The impact was immediate:

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• Oplit allows Teknor Apex to set their plants up for success through a reduction in changeovers, improved yield, and a stronger foundation for more automated planning over time.

• Fabriq helps to strengthen a culture of continuous improvement, with problem-solving embedded at every level of the manufacturing organization.
  
  
• Mercateam supports operators, mechanics, and lab technicians in building critical skills and advancing their careers - helping Teknor Apex better invest in and make the most of its most valuable resource: its people.

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This momentum has now led to a deeper, dual-track partnership. Teknor Apex and OSS Ventures are aligned as both core business partners and venture partners - with Teknor Apex joining as a founding partner in the €75M amplification fund alongside Decathlon PULSE and Groupe Peugeot Frères. The aim: help manufacturers scale effectively, accelerate reshoring and American manufacturing competitiveness, and digitize legacy operations with practical, deployable software.

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 “As we shape our next 100 years of manufacturing, digital transformation is the sole viable path to not only short-term efficiency, but long-term competitiveness,” said Michael Roberts, CIO, Teknor Apex. “By giving industrial software companies access to live production environments — with all the complexity and constraint that entails — this partnership creates the conditions for software that actually scales and empowers our people and our plants to work even more efficiently.”

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The Mandate for U.S. Manufacturing

Teknor Apex recognizes that manufacturers in the U.S. face a clear mandate to modernize in order to reshore production and rebuild a resilient domestic supply chain. Upgrading plants and digital systems is essential to producing competitively, and safeguarding against the volatility that has defined global manufacturing. At the same time, industrial software companies can only scale credibly when they work with real plants that expose them to the complexity and constraints of actual production. 

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Across its own manufacturing network, Teknor Apex has seen that the right software can do more than enhance operations - it can broaden what a manufacturer is able to achieve. The company views this initiative as an important step in advancing its own digital capabilities and helping shape a clearer path for manufacturers seeking to become more connected, agile, and capable industrial partners. Teknor Apex believes this kind of progress is accelerated by partnering with the OSS Ventures - an organization that shares its values, understands the realities of production, and are committed to delivering practical, long-term solutions.

A company that has advanced through a century of industrial shifts is now betting on software as the next one - and building the infrastructure to prove it.

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About Teknor Apex Company. Teknor Apex Company was founded in 1924 and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA, is a global provider of plastic material science solutions. The company manufactures a broad portfolio of materials including vinyl compounds, thermoplastic elastomers, and engineering thermoplastics, with operations across the United States, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit: www.teknorapex.com

About OSS Ventures. OSS Ventures is a venture studio founded by Renan Devillieres, focused on building software that transforms industrial operations. Since 2019, the firm has launched 20 companies — including Fabriq, Mercateam, Bonx, and Myc — deployed across 3,600 manufacturing sites globally. The core team of 22 operates across France, Europe, and the United States. To learn more, visit: www.oss.ventures.