Company · About
We give manufacturers an unfair advantage
Rapta unlocks 30% new manufacturing capacity with your same workforce and facility, reducing rework, scrap, and labor costs through AI deployed at the production line.
Defense & precision mfg
Serving the most demanding customers
Minutes to deploy
Visual no-code action builder
On-premises / air-gapped
ITAR-appropriate data governance
CMMC compliant
Built for regulated environments
Why Rapta exists
We lived the problem before we built the fix
Rapta started on the factory floor, not in a lab. Between us we have spent decades inside plants living through product recalls, warranty claims, and quality escapes. Every time we root-caused one, it came back to a simple, preventable mistake made at a station and then covered by the next one.
In many of the facilities we worked in, factories were losing 30 to 50% of their capacity to rework and quality problems that were entirely avoidable. The capacity was already in the building. It was going into rework nobody was counting.
At the same time, the people equation changed. Throwing more headcount at the line stopped working. Skills have atrophied, new operators arrive without the mechanical dexterity the job needs, and every hour an experienced supervisor spends watching a new hire is an hour off the line.
So we built the tool we wanted: a real-time coach that sits at the work cell, guides the operator through the build, verifies the work as it happens, and captures the evidence automatically. Get it right the first time, at the station, every time.
“If I make a mistake in a simple part, the cost of fixing it in the factory could have been $1. The cost of fixing it in the field could be $10,000. Or critically, it could be someone’s life at stake.”
What we saw firsthand
Four problems, in every plant we walked
01
Rework was eating the plant
Factories losing 30 to 50% of capacity to rework and avoidable quality problems. The capacity was already in the building. It was going into line time nobody counted.
02
Mistakes got covered, not caught
On a progressive line, an error at one station gets covered by the next. It surfaces at end-of-line test as a batch, or at the customer as a recall.
03
The skills gap kept widening
New operators arrive without the mechanical dexterity the job needs. Every hour an experienced supervisor spends coaching is an hour off the line.
04
The evidence lived in spreadsheets
Serialization, work orders and quality steps hand-typed into Excel, prone to manual entry errors at the bench and useless when you need to trace a root cause.
The founders
60+ years of industrial experience
Aaron J Brown spent a 22-year career at the intersection of software, AI and industrial systems, and led the first innovation team at Stanley Black & Decker to commercialize an applied AI product for an industrial application.
Matthew D Thornton is a 23-year Siemens veteran and a factory automation expert who has spent 27 years in assembly operations, and who kept seeing the same gap: teams with no toolset to get through their processes without a supervisor watching every move.
Matthias Daue, Rapta’s third founder and CTO, was a Distinguished Architect at Cylance, where he led AI-enabled endpoint security across millions of devices worldwide. An Air Force veteran with 20 years in AI and cyber security, he drives Rapta’s platform architecture and technical strategy.
“I’ve never, in my 27-year career, seen grown engineers act like little kids, because now they have a tool they can use to be better than the day before.”
Matthew D Thornton · Cofounder & CMO
Executive team
Precision manufacturing experts
Our leadership team brings together decades of experience at the intersection of AI, defense, industrial software, and precision manufacturing.

Aaron J Brown
Cofounder & CEO
Aaron led the first innovation team at Stanley Black and Decker to commercialize an applied AI product for an industrial application, across a 22-year career at the intersection of software, AI, and industrial systems.
LinkedIn ↗
Matthew D Thornton
Cofounder & CMO
A 23-year Siemens veteran, Matthew combines real-world customer experience with technology and strategy. As a hardcore factory automation expert, he deeply understands the challenges manufacturers face when deploying Industrial IoT.
LinkedIn ↗
Matthias Daue
Cofounder & CTO
Formerly a Distinguished Architect at Cylance, Matthias led AI-enabled endpoint security across millions of devices globally. An Air Force veteran with 20 years of experience in AI and cyber security, he drives Rapta’s platform architecture and technical strategy.
LinkedIn ↗
Cody Anderson
CFO
Cody leads Rapta’s finance organization, covering financial planning, controls, and capital strategy as the company scales. He partners with the executive team on pricing, unit economics, and the reporting rigor required in defense and regulated markets.
LinkedIn ↗
Trisha Fish
VP Strategy & Digital Modernization
Trisha brings 25+ years at Lockheed Martin and Elbit America, architecting and fielding intelligent sensing systems at the tactical edge. Her work spans sensor physics, signal processing, tracking, multi-sensor fusion, data science, and AI/ML—deploying intelligence across distributed networks to reduce cognitive burden, automate decisions, and improve mission effectiveness.
LinkedIn ↗
Jorge Relea
VP of Advanced Products
With 20+ years at L3Harris, Jorge built and scaled high-performing engineering organizations across software, image science, geospatial, and SEIT, supporting programs including F-35, GPS III, and Enhanced Night Vision Goggles. As both a program manager and functional leader, he brought technical rigor and program recovery expertise to complex programs, experience he now applies to Rapta’s product development.
LinkedIn ↗
Joel Eichelkraut
Director of Platform
At L3Harris, Joel led architecture of distributed software for optical satellite communications programs and built open-architecture frameworks for modular payload integration. Earlier at Harris Corporation, he built high-performance data pipelines for large-scale LiDAR and geospatial sensor processing.
LinkedIn ↗
Shelly Aufray
Director of Marketing
Before joining Rapta, Shelly was Marketing Team Lead for Siemens Digital Industries’ industrial automation business, where she also ran lead management. Her career spans B2B digital marketing, demand generation, and sales, including 13 years working internationally in Paris and London.
LinkedIn ↗Mission statement
Transform productivity and sustainability in manufacturing through AI
Our Manufacturing Intelligence Platform deploys on standard compute hardware and is the most powerful solution to automate the deployment of AI for manufacturing inspection and process control, supporting video and sensor data and enabling deployment of highly advanced AI solutions in minutes with our visual, no-code action builder.
Board of directors
Experienced operators, proven builders
Rapta’s board brings deep experience across cybersecurity, defense software, and venture-backed company building.

Ben Johnson
Non-Executive Director
Ben is a seasoned entrepreneur and co-founder of both Obsidian Security and Carbon Black, which significantly advanced the cybersecurity sector. As investor, advisor, and board member, he steers early-stage technology companies through their most critical growth phases.
LinkedIn ↗
Aaron J Brown
Cofounder & CEO
Led the first innovation team at Stanley Black and Decker to commercialize an applied AI product for industrial application across a 22-year career spanning software, AI, and industrial systems.
LinkedIn ↗
Matthew D Thornton
Cofounder & CMO
A 23-year Siemens veteran, Matthew combines real-world customer experience with technology and strategy. As a hardcore factory automation expert, he deeply understands the challenges manufacturers face when deploying Industrial IoT.
LinkedIn ↗
Diane Fraiman
Managing Director, Voyager Capital
Diane is a Managing Director at Voyager Capital, where she backs early-stage enterprise software and AI companies. She brings a venture operator’s perspective to Rapta’s board on go-to-market scaling and capital strategy.
LinkedIn ↗
Kirk Holland
Managing Director, Access Venture Partners
Kirk is a Managing Director at Access Venture Partners, where he invests in early-stage technology companies and works closely with founders through their scaling phases. He advises Rapta’s board on product and growth strategies, and building durable enterprise GTM motions.
LinkedIn ↗Get started
Ready to give your facility an unfair advantage
See how Rapta’s Manufacturing Intelligence Platform eliminates defects, unlocks capacity, and delivers real results, deployed in hours, not months.
