The maintenance management industry has undergone a radical transformation in the last decade. Given the complexity of handling industrial assets and the need to optimize costs, digitization is no longer an option but a strategic necessity.
A DOIT Software study indicated that, as of 2025, 35% of companies worldwide have achieved or are close to achieving their digital transformation goals.
In Latin America the situation is not dissimilar, and although there are still more complex challenges than in other regions, one company has created a solution to address the need to digitize processes in major companies.
Christian Struve founded Fracttal with the idea of democratizing maintenance intelligence after he identified an opportunity in a global problem: “Too many companies were still managing their assets with spreadsheets and obsolete systems, wasting time and money.”
A trip to Silicon Valley in 2014 was the turning point that prompted Fracttal to transition from implementing to creating.
From their early days in Chile, the mindset was key: “We always had an ambitious vision: we wanted to be global leaders. Although we were small at the beginning, we worked with intensity and focused on generating value quickly for clients,” explained the CEO and founder.
Learning to be different
Faced with established giants such as Siemens or SAP, Fracttal’s strategy was based on offering a “considerably better” solution and, above all, on proving its usefulness immediately. That’s why the firm never talked about a “minimum viable product”, but rather a “minimum sellable product”, a 100% cloud platform that a customer could use and that would justify their investment from day one.
In 2016 they made their first sale and just one year later reached the iconic milestone of billing their first million dollars. This growth caught the attention of investment funds, which injected capital to drive an aggressive expansion throughout Latin America, opening offices in Mexico, Brazil and Colombia.
Internationalization became a hallmark of the company. “Don’t wait until you have everything perfect. We sold in 50 countries before we had local operations in five,” says Struve. His philosophy is blunt: “When you enter a market, you go to conquer it, not to try your luck.”
The figures show that in the last five years the adoption of maintenance software has skyrocketed. In 2020, only 17% of companies were using it, and today it exceeds 50% globally. The trend reflects the importance of reducing unforeseen costs and optimizing the useful life of equipment.
Fracttal’s journey, however, did not come without obstacles. In the beginning, convincing companies to migrate from on-premises systems to SaaS in the cloud was an uphill battle.
“In a B2B startup, the first customers are vital. They ask you, ‘Who else is using it,’ and if you answer ‘no one,’ trust is tested,” Struve noted.
But validation soon came with early adopters who took a chance on Fracttal and whose success stories became an ideal business case.
Going international
In 2023, the company closed a Series B investment round of more than $10 million led by Kayyak Ventures, an endorsement of its growth model. What started in 2019 with Predicto, a machine learning pilot, has taken a quantum leap with the launch of its AI Agents in 2025.
“Generative AI changed everything. Today we have a factory of agents that automate processes, from creating work orders to analyzing data with natural language,” Struve explained.
These innovations translate into tangible impacts for its customers, who report reductions of up to 30% in maintenance costs, 50% less unplanned downtime and a 40% increase in technician productivity.
Some of the projects highlighted by the CEO were the maintenance management of the Maracana Stadium and the partnership with Gravity Wave to protect the oceans, demonstrating how technology transcends operational efficiency to contribute to the sustainability and safety of communities.
For entrepreneurs facing their own challenges today, Christian Struve’s message is: “Speed matters more than perfection. Sell first, validate with real customers and adjust fast.” Culture, he stresses, is key: intensity, curiosity and a focus on the customer.
“At Fracttal we say show, don’t tell: it’s not enough to promise, you have to demonstrate tangible value from day one,” Struve concluded.
The philosophy has grown his company from a Chilean startup to a global benchmark in the intelligent maintenance revolution with more than 200 employees and 40,000 users across 50 countries.
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