Neural Concept raises a USD 9.1 Million Series A to scale Engineering Intelligence within industrial organizations
22.03.2022
Neural Concept, the Engineering Intelligence company, has raised a USD 9.1 m Series A, led by Alven with the participation of Aster and prior investors, CNB, and HTGF. The funding follows a series of successes for Neural Concept. Over the last 12 months, the number of its customer companies has more than tripled. In the same period, the team achieved a major breakthrough in integrating its technology within automotive OEMs and Tier 1 design toolchains. We interviewed founder and CEO Pierre Baque about his visions for the future and his entrepreneurial path.
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Redefining the time-to-market of high-performance designs
Flawless products take time to develop. Engineering a futuristic car, an airplane or a smartphone requires countless iterations and an obsession for details. But, today’s global challenges and our business world are asking for new levels of reactivity, adaptivity, and speed. As a response, Neural Concept has redefined how quickly high-end designs can be engineered and brought to market. The company is relying on a proprietary technology, based on Geometric Deep-Learning, to exploit engineering data to the fullest. By automatically learning from raw simulation and everyday design information, Neural Concept’s solution speeds up R&D cycles, enhances product performance, and helps solve the toughest engineering challenges.
Neural Concept has already been adopted by world-class engineering teams at companies such as Airbus, Bosch, Safran, or Plastic-Omnium, as well as by a number of tech and car-racing groups. Engineering Intelligence reduces the time needed for repetitive numerical simulation tasks, taking it down from days to seconds. The speed and accessibility of the tool make teams more responsive: they typically solve design tasks two times faster than before, while reducing by up to 10 times the need for compute-intensive simulations.
Funding to support large scale deployments within key customers’ toolchains
In the next two years, Neural Concept’s ambition is that 200 engineering teams will experience these productivity improvements or cost-savings. To achieve that, the company will recruit more than 30 collaborators with engineering degrees, at the crossroads between simulations and machine learning and pursue its fruitful research collaboration with EPFL.
“With this new capital intake, we will deepen our collaboration with our key customers and go the extra mile together to fundamentally redesign and improve their engineering workflows. Our platform has proven its worth with a few leading engineering teams and the next years will be dedicated to making this revolution an everyday reality for hundreds of engineers”, explained Pierre Baqué, founder and CEO.
Neural Concept won Venture Kick stage 3 in 2019, participated in ESA BIC Switzerland, and was elected at the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award in 2020 and 2021. We interviewed founder and CEO Pierre Baque about his visions for the future and his entrepreneurial path.
Pierre, how will the 9.1-million-investment from Alven help achieve your vision?
In the next two years, Neural Concept’s ambition is that 200 engineering teams will experience these productivity improvements or cost-savings. To achieve that, the company will recruit more than 30 collaborators with engineering degrees, at the crossroads between simulations and machine learning and pursue its fruitful research collaboration with EPFL.
You won Venture Kick in 2019. How did it help you lay the foundation for your growth and today's achievement?
Venture Kick helped us first on my personal level to move from a researcher mindset into the shoes of a company leader, then with financial support at a crucial moment, and finally in gaining the confidence that the project has potential and that we should push it.
You also participated in ESA BIC Switzerland and TOP 100 2021 and 2020. How did it leverage your fundraising strategy?
These are obviously great brands, known at an international level. These programs are quality labels for investors.
When, and what, was your inspiration to found Neural Concept?
I had the chance to be in one of the first teams in the world where we explored Neural Networks for 3D, back in 2015 and 2016. Combined with personal connections and interest in engineering simulations, this was the unique cocktail that gave me the inspiration to found Neural Concept.
What is your advice for the potential Software entrepreneurs launching companies in Switzerland today?
You are at the right place at the right moment. This is a tough journey but the reward is to live and work without ever seeing a limit to what you could do if you really want to.
Source Part One: Neural Concept Press Release
Flawless products take time to develop. Engineering a futuristic car, an airplane or a smartphone requires countless iterations and an obsession for details. But, today’s global challenges and our business world are asking for new levels of reactivity, adaptivity, and speed. As a response, Neural Concept has redefined how quickly high-end designs can be engineered and brought to market. The company is relying on a proprietary technology, based on Geometric Deep-Learning, to exploit engineering data to the fullest. By automatically learning from raw simulation and everyday design information, Neural Concept’s solution speeds up R&D cycles, enhances product performance, and helps solve the toughest engineering challenges.
Neural Concept has already been adopted by world-class engineering teams at companies such as Airbus, Bosch, Safran, or Plastic-Omnium, as well as by a number of tech and car-racing groups. Engineering Intelligence reduces the time needed for repetitive numerical simulation tasks, taking it down from days to seconds. The speed and accessibility of the tool make teams more responsive: they typically solve design tasks two times faster than before, while reducing by up to 10 times the need for compute-intensive simulations.Funding to support large scale deployments within key customers’ toolchains
In the next two years, Neural Concept’s ambition is that 200 engineering teams will experience these productivity improvements or cost-savings. To achieve that, the company will recruit more than 30 collaborators with engineering degrees, at the crossroads between simulations and machine learning and pursue its fruitful research collaboration with EPFL.
“With this new capital intake, we will deepen our collaboration with our key customers and go the extra mile together to fundamentally redesign and improve their engineering workflows. Our platform has proven its worth with a few leading engineering teams and the next years will be dedicated to making this revolution an everyday reality for hundreds of engineers”, explained Pierre Baqué, founder and CEO.
Neural Concept won Venture Kick stage 3 in 2019, participated in ESA BIC Switzerland, and was elected at the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award in 2020 and 2021. We interviewed founder and CEO Pierre Baque about his visions for the future and his entrepreneurial path.
Pierre, how will the 9.1-million-investment from Alven help achieve your vision?In the next two years, Neural Concept’s ambition is that 200 engineering teams will experience these productivity improvements or cost-savings. To achieve that, the company will recruit more than 30 collaborators with engineering degrees, at the crossroads between simulations and machine learning and pursue its fruitful research collaboration with EPFL.
You won Venture Kick in 2019. How did it help you lay the foundation for your growth and today's achievement?
Venture Kick helped us first on my personal level to move from a researcher mindset into the shoes of a company leader, then with financial support at a crucial moment, and finally in gaining the confidence that the project has potential and that we should push it.
You also participated in ESA BIC Switzerland and TOP 100 2021 and 2020. How did it leverage your fundraising strategy?
These are obviously great brands, known at an international level. These programs are quality labels for investors.
When, and what, was your inspiration to found Neural Concept?
I had the chance to be in one of the first teams in the world where we explored Neural Networks for 3D, back in 2015 and 2016. Combined with personal connections and interest in engineering simulations, this was the unique cocktail that gave me the inspiration to found Neural Concept.
What is your advice for the potential Software entrepreneurs launching companies in Switzerland today?
You are at the right place at the right moment. This is a tough journey but the reward is to live and work without ever seeing a limit to what you could do if you really want to.
Source Part One: Neural Concept Press Release