(Bloomberg) — UK startup CloudNC has clinched the backing of two large US firms, software company Autodesk Inc. and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp., in a fresh funding round.
The London-based company that’s seeking to automate the manufacturing of everything from airplanes to personal electronics raised $45 million in the Autodesk-led funding round, according to CloudNC’s Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Theo Saville.
Other backers include Atomico, the tech investment firm started by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, Episode 1 Ventures and British Patient Capital, an arm of the UK government’s British Business Bank.
The latest investment values CloudNC at as much as 200 million pounds ($245 million), according to people familiar with the matter, giving the company capital to to further develop its software and expand its manufacturing capability in Essex.
With global supply chains snarled by delays, rising costs and the impact of renewed coronavirus outbreaks in China, CloudNC is betting it can be part of the solution.
“Autonomous manufacturing levels the playing field with respect to labor costs, making it a lot easier to have a local supply chain that’s more resilient and flexible,” Saville said in an interview.
The company’s software essentially cuts out manual machine programming by setting up factories to autonomously make more parts, quickly and with less waste.
A user can upload a 3D model of any part and the software then determines the tools needed, their use and drafts the code to tell a machine how to make it.
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