Industrial Automation Report 2026: Key Innovation Data & Insights

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Executive Summary: Industrial Automation Report [2026]

• Industry Growth Overview: The industrial automation market size is at USD 221.64 billion in 2025 and is set to reach USD 325.51 billion by 2030, reflecting a 7.99% CAGR. On a granular level, the industrial automation sector records a 0.87% yearly company growth rate.
• Manpower & Employment Growth: The industry employs more than 1.6 million professionals globally and added 445 new employees in the last year. This signals sustained demand for automation engineers, control system specialists, and industrial software professionals.
• Patents: Innovation remains strong, with 24 500 applicants holding over 54 200 patents. Also, the yearly patent activity grew 7.2%.
• Global Footprint: Industrial automation activity concentrates in China, the US, Turkey, Italy, and Brazil. Also, the city hubs such as Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Istanbul, and Hyderabad anchor manufacturing automation, system integration, and industrial digitalization clusters.
• Investment Landscape: The sector records an average investment value of USD 28.1 million per round. More than 5000 investors support over 4600 funding rounds, with more than 1500 companies receiving capital to scale automation technologies and industrial software solutions.
• Top Investors: Leading investors include the European Investment Bank, Delphi, Yageo, and more. Their combined investment value exceeded USD 5.81 billion across the sector.
• Startup Ecosystem: Five startups, such as Cybarete (agent-based industrial automation engine), IEQ Quest (industrial IoT-enabled automation), SALZ Automation (industrial automation controllers), Oslice Technology (machine vision-driven industrial automation), and Reverity (PLC software standardization and automation logic enhancement), highlight innovation in the sector.

Methodology: How we created this Industrial Automation Report

This report is based on proprietary data from our AI-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, which tracks 9 million global companies, 20K+ technologies and trends, as well as 150M patents, news articles, and market reports.

This data includes detailed firmographic insights into approximately 9 million startups, scaleups, and tech companies. Leveraging this exhaustive database, we provide actionable insights for startup scouting, trend discovery, and technology landscaping.

For this report, we focused on the evolution of industrial automation over the past 5 years, utilizing our platform’s trend intelligence feature. Key data points analyzed include:

• Total Companies working in the sector
• News Coverage and Annual Growth
• Market Maturity and Patents
• Global Search Volume & Growth
• Funding Activity and Top Countries
• Subtrends within industrial automation

Our data is refreshed regularly, enabling trend comparisons for deeper insights into their relative impact and importance.

Additionally, we reviewed trusted external resources to supplement our findings with broader market data and predictions, ensuring a reliable and comprehensive overview of the industrial automation market.

What Data is used to create this Industrial Automation Outlook?

Based on data provided by the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, we observe that the industrial automation market stands out in the following categories relative to the 20K+ technologies and trends we track.

These categories provide a comprehensive overview of the market’s key metrics and inform the future direction of the market.

• News Coverage & Publications: The industrial automation market recorded more than 103 100 publications released in the last year. It reflects strong global attention and continuous knowledge dissemination.
• Funding Rounds: The market demonstrates strong capital activity, with more than 4600 funding rounds tracked in the database.
• Manpower: The Industrial automation market employs over 1.6 million professionals globally and added more than 445 new employees in the last year.
• Patents: With over 54 200 patents filed, the sector shows a high level of technological innovation and intellectual property generation.
• Global Search Growth: A 3.09% increase in global search interest over the past 5 years signals rising awareness and demand for industrial automation solutions across global markets.

Explore the Data-driven Industrial Automation Market Report for 2026

The industrial automation market size stood at USD 221.64 billion in 2025 and is set to reach USD 325.51 billion by 2030, reflecting a 7.99% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

As per our Discovery Platform, the industrial automation market is supported by 2490+ startups within a wider ecosystem of 26 200+ companies globally.

Despite market maturity, the industrial automation market records a 0.87% yearly industry growth rate. This data indicates steady expansion driven by incremental automation adoption across manufacturing, energy, and process industries.

Innovation intensity remains high, with more than54 200 patents filed by 24500+ applicants. This supports continuous development in control systems, robotics, and industrial software.

The sector employs approximately 1.6 million professionals worldwide, adding 440+ new roles over the past year.

Geographically, activity concentrates around key industrial economies. China, the US, Turkey, Italy, and Brazil lead as the top country hubs.

Additionally, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Istanbul, and Hyderabad emerge as major city-level clusters anchoring manufacturing automation, robotics integration, and industrial digitalization efforts.

A Snapshot of the Global Industrial Automation Market

The industrial automation industry records a 0.87% annual industry growth rate. Besides, the sector includes 2490+ startups within a broader pool of 26 200+ companies globally.

Patent activity underlines the industrial automation sector’s strong technology growth. The sector holds more than 54 200 patents filed by over 24 500 applicants, achieving a 7.2% yearly patent growth rate.

China leads patent issuance with 33 780+ filings, followed by the US with 6970+ patents. The data positions both countries as central hubs for industrial automation research, intellectual property development, and long-term technology leadership.

Explore the Funding Landscape of the Industrial Automation Market

The industrial automation investment landscape reflects sustained investor confidence, with an average investment size of USD 28.1 million per round.

More than 5000 investors actively participate in the sector and support innovation across robotics, industrial software, sensing, and control systems.

Funding activity remains strong, with 4600+ funding rounds closed and capital deployed across more than 1500 companies globally.

These investment patterns indicate consistent deal flow and long-term commitment to industrial automation driven by demand for productivity gains and digital factory solutions.

Who is Investing in the Industrial Automation Market?

The top investors in industrial automation collectively deployed more than USD 5.81 billion. This shows concentrated capital deployment across major industrial automation innovators.

• European Investment Bank invested USD 1.1 billion across 3 companies. EIB provided EUR 8 million in R&D loans to Nomagic for warehouse robotics automation.
• Delphi deployed USD 795.6 million into at least 1 company. Aptiv, formerly known as Delphi Automotive plc, agreed to acquire nuTonomy, Inc. for USD 400 million upfront to strengthen its autonomous vehicle technology capabilities.
• Yageo invested USD 751.9 million in at least 1 company.
• Eclipse committed USD 534.2 million across 3 companies. Eclipse led a USD 28 million Series B in Simbe Robotics to scale AI-driven retail automation solutions.
• Novalynx deployed USD 493.2 million into at least 1 company.
• Investisseurs Prives invested USD 493.2 million in at least 1 company.
• Lincoln Electric allocated USD 427 million across 3 companies. Lincoln Electric agreed to acquire Fori Automation for USD 427 million.
• Sylebra Capital invested USD 420 million in at least 1 company.
• Barnes Group deployed USD 410 million into at least 1 company.
• Teradyne invested USD 391.1 million across 3 companies. Teradyne agreed to acquire Quantifi Photonics to expand its test solutions and automation capabilities.

Top Industrial Automation Innovations & Trends

Discover the emerging trends in the industrial automation market along with their firmographic details:

5G Connectivity

This domain enables low-latency, high-reliability communication across connected machines, robots, and control systems. The segment spans 17 500+ identified companies, employing 2.5 million professionals globally, with 340+ new employees added in the last year.

An annual growth rate of 3.03% reflects consistent adoption of private 5G networks, real-time machine coordination, and wireless factory architectures across manufacturing plants, warehouses, and process industries.

Cybersecurity

This segment includes over 329 800 companies and employs 28.2 million people worldwide, with more than 8200 new roles created in the last year.

With an annual growth rate of 2.87%, cybersecurity investments focus on securing industrial control systems (ICS), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) platforms, and connected production assets against rising cyber threats.

Digital Twin

This segment is supported by an annual growth rate of 7.62%. The ecosystem comprises 12 700+ companies and employs 976 200 professionals globally, with 380+ new employees added in the past year. Digital twins enable virtual modeling of machines, production lines, and entire factories.

They support predictive maintenance, process optimization, and simulation-driven decision-making. The growth highlights rising demand for data-driven automation, lifecycle optimization, and real-time performance visibility across industrial operations.

5 Top Examples from 2400+ Innovative Industrial Automation Startups

The five innovative industrial automation startups showcased below are picked based on data, including the trend they operate within and their relevance, founding year, funding status, and more. Book a demo to find promising startups, emerging trends, or industry data specific to your company’s needs and objectives.

Cybarete – Agent-based Industrial Automation Engine

South African startup Cybarete builds the BASE platform, which is an industrial automation platform that applies distributed, agent-based intelligence to industrial environments.

The BASE platform supports automation across safety-critical and data-intensive industrial operations.

Moreover, the platform operates through autonomous agents running across a distributed infrastructure. This enables real-time data processing, adaptive coordination, and system-level decision-making without centralized control.

The platform supports industrial use cases such as missing miner safety systems, underground environmental monitoring, and workforce management through CrewPulse.

It operates as a Software as a Service (SaaS) workforce management module that tracks labor hours, attendance, project costs, and resource utilization across industrial operations.

The platform also enables distributed automation infrastructure and knowledge orchestration through the KRUX retrieval and unification engine.

IEQ Quest – Industrial IoT-enabled Automation

Indian startup IEQ Quest creates cloud-connected industrial automation and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions that link plant operations, utilities, and energy systems to centralized digital platforms.

The startup connects industrial assets to cloud-based control and data management layers that support automated operations. It integrates rugged IoT controllers and gateways with a SaaS platform, GridOnCloud.

The platform ingests machine and utility data, transmits it securely, and processes it for real-time monitoring, control, analytics, and engineering workflows.

Additionally, GridOnCloud enables industrial interoperability through hardware and software compatibility with protocols such as Modbus and Distributed Network Protocol 3 (DNP3).

The platform offers sustainability and energy oversight through ESGOnCloud. It structures data collection, reporting, and audit records aligned with business responsibility and sustainability report (BRSR) requirements.

SALZ Automation – Industrial Automation Controllers

German startup SALZ Automation designs industrial automation controllers as compact industrial PC hardware for machine, process, and building automation environments.

The startup provides control hardware optimized for space-constrained and performance-driven industrial systems.

Also, the controllers run on Linux-based systems and integrate EtherCAT communication through a high-performance backplane bus. This design enables digital, analog, and infrastructure input/output modules to exchange real-time signals and support safety data via Fail Safe over EtherCAT (FSoE).

Additionally, built-in Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interfaces and modular expansion options enable flexible system configuration.

The product includes controller variants such as AMAX 70 PURE and AMAX 80-C PURE, supported by software solutions and CODESYS control and visualization.

Oslice Technology – Machine Vision-driven Industrial Automation

Spanish startup Oslice Technology provides industrial automation solutions that combine control systems, machine design, and intelligent digital technologies for production environments.

The startup implements automation architectures that integrate programmable logic controller (PLC) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) programming. These systems combine process monitoring, industrial sensing, and robotics to manage and optimize production workflows.

Additionally, it applies artificial intelligence (AI) and machine vision systems that use red, green, and blue (RGB), hyperspectral, ultraviolet (UV), and infrared (IR) imaging. These technologies perform defect detection, pattern recognition, metrology, and automated inspection within industrial lines.

Reverity – PLC Software Standardization & Automation Logic Enhancement

Canadian startup Reverity provides PLC Shift, which is a hardware-independent industrial automation software platform.

The platform extends the functionality of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and remote terminal units (RTUs) through standardized applications and solutions.

Additionally, PLC Shift operates on a Linux-based computer that integrates directly with existing control systems. It manages application configuration, contextualized data collection, secure data export, and system integration while the PLC continues real-time control execution.

PLC Shift includes preconfigured industrial apps such as Gas Flow, Liquid Flow, Well Test, Plunger Lift, Gas Lift, GAPL, and Datalogger. These applications support measurement, production optimization, and operational reporting using standardized logic.

Gain Comprehensive Insights into Industrial Automation Trends, Startups, and Technologies

The industrial automation market will continue evolving through increased adoption of connected control systems, data-driven operations, and software-defined automation architectures.

In 2026, companies will prioritize technologies that improve operational efficiency, strengthen system resilience, and enable real-time visibility across assets and processes.

They will also invest in automation platforms that support integration between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) while addressing cybersecurity and workforce challenges.

Get in touch to explore 2400+ startups and scaleups, as well as all market trends impacting industrial automation companies worldwide.