CloudNC raises $45m to deliver autonomous manufacturing

CloudNC, the company developing advanced software that enables factories to autonomously manufacture precision parts, today announced it has raised $45 million in a Series B round led by Autodesk, with Lockheed Martin and British Patient Capital participating alongside returning investors Atomico and Episode 1 Ventures. The company will use the additional capital to further develop its SaaS offering and roll out at-scale through integrations with CAD/CAM packages such as Autodesk’s platforms, and to expand its unique full-stack manufacturing capability in Essex, United Kingdom.

Precision manufacturing, an industrial process required to make parts needed for virtually every industry, from automotive and aerospace to consumer electronics and defence, is currently error prone, time-consuming and expensive. Despite increased automation, precision manufacturing’s dependency on expert manual programming makes it less efficient than other industrial processes and means it is heavily exposed to an ageing workforce.

CloudNC’s technology already provides a significant degree of autonomy. A user can upload a 3D model of any part and, with one click, the software autonomously determines the tools needed, how they will be used and drafts the code to tell a CNC machine how to make it. This software assistance allows factories to be more efficient while upskilling the workforce, since more junior employees are able to operate the machines.

Ultimately, by reducing reliance on manual machine programming, CloudNC’s advanced software will enable factories to autonomously manufacture more parts, more reliably, faster and with less waste than current processes. It will help level manufacturing costs from region to region, enabling producers to build increasingly local and resilient supply chains.

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