CoLab Software, a company building collaboration solutions for mechanical engineering and hardware development teams, announced its fully subscribed Series B round with $21 million in funding. Insight Partners led the round, which included participation from existing major investors Y Combinator, Killick Capital, and Pelorus VC.
Over the last two years, CoLab grew 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, the teams have accelerated design cycles while increasing design quality and product quality.
This funding will be used to reach new customers and accelerate the development of technology, including AI. 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 year.
CoLab will also use the funding 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.
CoLab’s platform streamlines manual, multistep processes for sharing designs, documenting feedback, and tracking issues. And 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. And this same data can be used to train AI models. And for customers that opt in, CoLab’s ReviewAI will help engineers make more informed decisions and automate routine tasks and administrative work.
KEY QUOTES:
“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. The result is a huge administrative burden for engineers and unacceptable risk of issues slipping through the cracks.”
– CoLab co-founder and CEO Adam Keating
“By applying machine learning and generative AI, we can enhance and extend the value of CoLab’s core platform for mechanical engineering teams. We’re excited to accelerate delivery of these solutions, as a result of this funding round.”
– Jeremy Andrews, CoLab Co-Founder and CTO
“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.”
– Josh Fredberg, Managing Director at Insight Partners and a member of CoLab’s Board of Directors
