The Story of Azumuta: Building the Future of Manufacturing Knowledge

The Story of Azumuta: Building the Future of Manufacturing Knowledge

Some founders spend years searching for their perfect market opportunity. For others, the market finds them. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Azumuta founder Batist Leman shared how two seemingly routine customer requests sparked a journey to revolutionize manufacturing knowledge management.

The Maker’s Journey

Long before Azumuta existed, Batist was already living at the intersection of software and manufacturing. “I started programming at eleven,” he recalled. “I was always super passionate about building things, not only in code, but also like building things with legos, with electronics in the garden, building camps, things like that.”

This hands-on approach led him to study mechanical engineering and automation, followed by a stint at a robotics company. But the entrepreneurial itch eventually proved too strong to ignore. “Then the earth was too big and I started something on my own,” Batist explained. “So I started as an independent consultant doing software projects, basically industry projects.”

The Accidental Product Company

The pivot from consulting to product wasn’t planned. “It was 2015 or something, then came a customer asking, can you create a software tool for making these work instructions here?” Batist remembered. “I did that and a while later another manufacturing company came to me and said, hey, we have a problem with our work instructions here.”

This repeated request pattern triggered a crucial realization. “So then I thought like, yeah, that’s now the second time they are asking me this. Perhaps I can do this as a service and provide them with this software tool online where we manage the service and improve it.” For Batist, this represented more than just a business opportunity. “That was a dream come true. It was really like a combination of my two passions, which were programming and manufacturing.”

Finding Their Sweet Spot

Through careful market listening and iteration, Azumuta developed a precise understanding of their ideal customer. “For us, it’s like our sweet spot is a discrete manufacturing… companies that are building complex products that takes a long time to make,” Batist explained. “If it’s a bit longer, like 1 hour, 2 hours to do your job, and then products with high degree of complexity… then it’s a good fit.”

This focus on complexity and high-stakes manufacturing environments proved crucial. As Batist noted, they’re particularly valuable “when it costs a lot, when someone makes a mistake… because there is a danger for recalls, for example, or customer complaint is expensive.”

The Evolution Challenge

Growing from a consulting project into a scalable software company brought its own challenges. “We are quite technical team… we like to talk about features. That’s a classic, it’s not necessarily a mistake, but that’s a classic property of a startup,” Batist admitted. The company had to evolve its messaging from technical specifications to business value, particularly “how do you get your quality under control, the quality of your workforce? How can you defend against an aging workforce?”

The growth journey itself has been more gradual than dramatic. “Actually, in the moment, I rarely feel like it’s working,” Batist shared. “You’re always super busy. You’re doing deals, you’re doing hires, you’re handling all kinds of things… It’s only when you stop and you think like, oh, two years back, and now we grew times ten.”

The Future of Manufacturing Knowledge

Looking ahead, Azumuta’s vision centers on the human element in manufacturing. As Batist explained, “We think that there will always be humans in manufacturing. Even if there are lots of robots, there will always be humans doing the oversight, helping the robots. And so they also need to be supported.”

This focus on human knowledge capture and transfer becomes particularly crucial as industries face demographic challenges. “They can’t be forgotten, end up in misery. If your knowledge is in the people’s heads and they leave your company, then all the knowledge gets lost and you have to start over.”

The goal isn’t just to digitize work instructions – it’s to fundamentally transform how manufacturing knowledge is captured, transferred, and preserved. In an era of increasing automation, Azumuta is betting that human expertise will remain the critical factor in manufacturing success, and that supporting these humans with better tools and systems will be key to industry’s future.