The Spark Behind the Idea
Factorem began when Alexandra Zhang and Hardik Dobariya found themselves frustrated with the long, winding road of bringing hardware ideas to life—months passing sourcing custom parts, minimum order quantities strangling innovation, and the complexity of navigating manufacturers across Southeast Asia.
It was 2018 when the seed of the idea first germinated: during Alexandra’s fellowship in NOC Toronto, and through her time with product companies, she saw firsthand how much time, cost, and creativity were lost in translation between design and manufacture. Hardik, at that time also working in similar product-scale environments, shared this pain and ambition. Together, they envisioned a platform that could turn that inefficiency into opportunity.
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Founding Factorem
By 2020, the vision solidified into Factorem. The name of the company itself emphasizes the act of creation: It’s based on the Latin for “maker.” Alexandra stepped in as CEO, taking the lead on strategy and partnerships as Hardik focused directly on product — ensuring that the technology platform was smooth, scalable and effective.
The timing was critical. The world was grappling with pandemic upsets, supply chains were under the microscope and companies of every size were on the lookout for manufacturing models that would stand up to shocks. Factorem provided a digital bridge connecting innovators who needed parts with factories from Southeast Asia that had the capacity but not the visibility.
Bridging Demand and Supply: What Founders Walked Into
When Alexandra and Hardik launched the company (Factorem was formally founded in 2020), they set out with a mission that felt both bold and essential: make ordering custom, low-volume, high-complexity parts as easy as placing an order online.
The vision was to collapse lead times, remove minimum order limits, and enable innovators, startups, robotics firms, biotech companies, and makers everywhere to access manufacturing capacity in Southeast Asia without the usual barriers.
Much of the early work involved figuring out how to build trust with factories, ensuring quality, automating parts of quoting and matching, while allowing the founders and team to scale without losing control of the finer points—material quality, finish, turnaround times.
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The Ground They’ve Gained: Growth, Reinvention, and Identity
Under Alexandra’s leadership as CEO and Hardik’s technical and product guidance as Chief Product Officer, Factorem has seen its revenue grow roughly 300% year-on-year.
Their factory network has expanded dramatically: from a handful of vetted manufacturers to over 100 across Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea (and more), covering CNC, 3D printing, sheet metal fabrication, surface treatments, and more.
The founders have stayed true to the core promise: instant quotes (powered by AI), no minimum order quantity, rapid feedback on manufacturability, and better visibility into product journeys. Alexandra, whose inspiration also comes from her family’s background of small business and hawkerpreneurs, has shaped the company identity around accessibility and efficiency.
Hardik’s product/engineering instincts have driven the systems and dashboard tools that allow partners and customers to interact with ease and transparency.
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Challenges, Choices, and What’s Next
Factorem’s founders have also wrestled with the double challenge of scaling their tech while retaining quality. Recruiting factory partners, tracking performance and enforcing quality standards has been a constant job.
Balancing growth in new markets (both geography and industry verticals) with consistent delivery has demanded that Alexandra and Hardik focus on what matters most—reducing friction, ensuring customer satisfaction, and building their technology platform to be reliable.
Founders’ resilience shows in their openness to doing the hard work of early wins, iterating fast, learning from missteps, and preserving their mission of lowering barriers.
As of the latest, they are leveraging fresh funding (led by SEEDS Capital and Blue InCube Ventures among others) to scale their platform, improve speed and accuracy, and deepen presence across Southeast Asia and potentially beyond.
