CoLab Software raises $21M to help hardware engineering teams accelerate product development
May 16 2024 - 1:42PM
Business Wire
CoLab Software, a technology company building collaboration
solutions for mechanical engineering and hardware development
teams, today announced its fully subscribed Series B round with
$21M USD in funding. Global software investor Insight Partners led
the round, with participation from existing major investors,
including Y Combinator, Killick Capital, and Pelorus VC.
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CoLab is a cloud based platform purpose
built for engineering design review. (Graphic: Business Wire)
In the last two years, CoLab has grown revenue nearly 10x, while
partnering with engineering teams at leading manufacturing
organizations, including Ford, Schaeffler, and Komatsu. By using
CoLab’s Design Engagement System to review engineering files,
capture and track feedback, these teams have accelerated design
cycles while increasing design quality and product quality.
The funding will be used to reach new customers and accelerate
development of technology, including artificial intelligence. CoLab
will also invest in expanding relationships with existing
customers, an effort that has yielded successful results so far
with 158% net revenue retention (NRR) in the last 12 months.
CoLab will also use the funds to expand its team, adding 30-40
new roles at headquarters in St. John’s, Newfoundland and remotely
across Canada and the United States. This will include three key
executive hires: a VP of Sales, a VP of People, and a VP of
Customer Success.
“As products become more complex, companies hire global teams of
specialized experts to analyze tradeoffs and evolve designs. But
the tools these teams have to review designs, collaborate, and make
decisions haven’t evolved to handle the complexity,” explains
Co-Founder and CEO Adam Keating. “The result is a huge
administrative burden for engineers and unacceptable risk of issues
slipping through the cracks.”
A 2023 survey conducted on behalf of CoLab found that 43% of
issues identified during design reviews are never documented or
addressed. CoLab’s platform streamlines manual, multistep processes
for sharing designs, documenting feedback, and tracking issues. By
centralizing reviews and feedback in a single platform, teams
generate referenceable design histories for every part as a
byproduct of doing their work.
CoLab captures data on how engineering teams evolve their
designs, generating quantitative insights. This same data can be
used to train AI models. For customers that opt in, CoLab’s
ReviewAI will help engineers make more informed decisions and
automate routine tasks and administrative work.
“By applying machine learning and generative AI, we can enhance
and extend the value of CoLab’s core platform for mechanical
engineering teams,” comments Jeremy Andrews, Co-Founder and CTO.
“We’re excited to accelerate delivery of these solutions, as a
result of this funding round.”
CoLab plans to unveil new solutions and an early look at their
product roadmap at the company’s first user conference, The Design
Engagement Summit, taking place in St. John’s August 27-29, 2024.
The agenda also includes comprehensive talks from engineering
practitioners at companies like Schaeffler, Autoneum, and
iRobot.
CoLab’s Series B comes at a time when interest in manufacturing,
hardware engineering, and supply chain technology is on the
rise.
Josh Fredberg, Managing Director at Insight Partners and a
member of CoLab’s Board of Directors, explains: “Manufacturing
organizations are adopting Cloud based software faster than ever
before. There is significant opportunity for vertical SaaS to
improve outcomes, increase efficiencies and replace manual
processes. Insight has made a number of exciting investments in
manufacturing related SaaS, including this recent investment in
CoLab.”
Early stage startup accelerator Y Combinator (YC) published a
Request for Startups in early 2024 that includes themes like
machine learning to simulate the physical world, new enterprise
resource planning software, and bring manufacturing back to
America. CoLab participated in YC’s summer 2019 batch, and YC will
invest additional funds in CoLab as part of their Series B.
Learn more about CoLab Software at www.colabsoftware.com
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Mary Keough, Head of Content marykeough@colabsoftware.com