Neural Concept gets additional fundraising and a new advisory board to speed up and democratize the power of deep learning for design and engineering
24.02.2021
Neural Concept is a Swiss company on a mission to help engineers achieve radically better designs while speeding up their workflow, thanks to Deep-Learning. Constantia New Business and High-Tech Grunderfonds financed the next stage of the growth of Neural Concept, the Swiss design and engineering software company, by providing seed-extension capital. The two investors already led the seed-funding 18 months ago. Neural Concept is therefore accelerating its quest to put the power of deep learning into the hands of design engineers, for real-time simulation and interactive design optimization. We interviewed CEO and Co-founder Pierre Baqué about his entrepreneurial path and future visions.
.jpg) |
 |
Numerical simulations have become of primary importance for the industry over the last decades. Neural Concept aims to transform the way engineers collaborate with computers by introducing the power of AI into the development process. Neural Concept developed an AI algorithmic software that helps engineers speed up R&D cycles, reduce computational costs and automatically optimize designs. The left picture shows NCS temperature and airflow prediction for an automotive HVAC system, analyzed in Paraview.In concert with this fundraising, the company is announcing the creation of a new Advisory Board, which complements its existing Board of Directors. The new members of the team, Evrard Van Zuylen, and Roberto Schettler bring significant experience in founding, growing, and managing successful B2B software companies in the Machine Learning and Engineering Design spaces.
“Neural Concept has initiated a new world of simulation! Deep learning will not only speed up and democratize simulation across all fields of design and engineering, but I am also convinced that it will finally enable iterative design for better products at a lower cost. Instead of seeing it as a vision only, companies can bring this to life with Neural Concepts software products.“— said Roberto Schettler.
Pierre, you won Venture Kick in 2019. How did it help you lay the foundation for your growth and today's achievement?The Venture Kick program helped us transition from an Academic project to a company. It made us completely adapt our mindset by adding customer satisfaction as a core goal, on top of the technical excellence that we already had established.
You also participated in ESA-BIC and were selected on TOP 100 Swiss Startups Awards in 2020. How did it leverage your fundraising strategy?
These are clearly two very strong brands and signals for investors in Switzerland and in the DACH region. Therefore, it obviously strengthens everyone's belief in the company to see that Neural Concept is recognized by ESA-BIC and by TOP 100.
Picture Source - NAKED AI: What happens when Artificial Intelligence and Human Creative meet? A research by CISCO Italia and Logotel and NAKED AI Documentary launch. When, and what, was your inspiration to found Neural Concept?
The idea of developing the project -it was not yet a company-, came by making the connection around 2015 between the emerging movement of 3D Deep-Learning in Computer Vision, that is the underlying technology of NC, which we were part of in CVLab, and with holiday discussions with a childhood friend who works in Computer-Assisted Engineering in the industry, being our target market.
What is your advice for the potential software entrepreneurs launching companies in Switzerland today?
I think that the ecosystem is fantastic, all the resources are available to make it work. Make sure that you are really aware of what it takes, and go for it 100%. There are so many opportunities for good software people that focus is not always easy, but it is super necessary.
Pierre Braqué, CEO of Neural Concept, Photo credits and copyright: Alain Herzog