Pawtucket, Rhode Island--(Newsfile Corp. - April 28, 2026) - Teknor Apex Company, a global leader in material science solutions, today announced it has joined as a founding partner in a new €75 million investment fund with OSS Ventures to scale proven industrial software companies across North America and Europe.
Building Software Where It Matters: On the Manufacturing Floor
For Teknor Apex, this partnership reflects a shared belief: 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. That belief aligned the company with OSS Ventures, a venture studio founded in 2019 by Renan Devillieres that builds next-generation industrial software at the intersection of software development and manufacturing operations.
Teknor Apex will serve as the regional industrial anchor partner as OSS Ventures extends its operations into North America with a new office in Boston, MA - becoming the first U.S. manufacturer to both invest in and operate OSS portfolio software at scale.
"Manufacturing in the U.S. must become more competitive - and we believe we have a clear path to help make that happen," said Donald Wiseman, CEO, Teknor Apex. "By combining real production environments, practical software, and the people who run our plants every day, we're building a model for how industrial companies can scale technology in a way that actually works."
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.
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.
Teknor Apex deployed three of OSS Ventures' portfolio companies in their Rhode Island and Tennessee sites. The impact was immediate:
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.
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.
"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."
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.
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. For Teknor Apex, this kind of progress is accelerated by partnering with OSS Ventures - an organization that shares its values, understands the realities of production, and is 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.
###
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.
READER INQUIRY INFORMATION: Americas: Teknor Apex, 505 Central Avenue, Pawtucket, RI 02861 U.S.A. Tel.: 1-401-725-8000. Email: info@teknorapex.com Europe: Teknor Germany Gmbh, Am Rödlein 1, 91541 Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany Tel.: +49-(0) 9861 97497 0 Asia: Teknor Apex Asia Pacific, 41 Shipyard Road, Singapore 628134. Tel.: 65-6265-2544.
Photo caption: From co-builders to co-investors: OSS Ventures' Founder/CEO Renan Devillieres and Michael Roberts, CIO of Teknor Apex
To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/12350/294413_c7b15dae8495cbb0_002full.jpg
For more information contact:
Taylor Gerrity, Square Root Marketing
+1 954-812-2786, taylor.gerrity@squarerootmarketing.com
To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/294413
Source: Teknor Apex
