NEURAL-CONCEPT

Neural Concept, the leading Engineering Intelligence platform that transforms product design with 3D Deep Learning, has announced that it has raised $27 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Forestay Capital, with the D. E. Shaw group and existing investors Alven, CNB Capital, HTGF, and Aster Group also participating. This round follows the company’s $9 million Series A round in March 2022 and $2 million Seed round in 2020. Funds raised in this latest round will be used to consolidate Neural Concept’s technology leadership in the field, as well as to accelerate its global recruitment and growth to meet strong customer demand across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the US.

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Manufacturers globally are facing unprecedented challenges. The need for improved performance, safety, and sustainability is increasing, while pressure to reduce costs and accelerate innovation continues to rise. Neural Concept solves these challenges by empowering engineering teams to develop better products faster using AI.

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, Neural Concept has more than 60 employees across Switzerland, Germany, and the US, and is the leader in 3D Deep Learning for product engineering teams in the Automotive, Micro-electronics, Aerospace, and Energy industries. More than 60 Original Equipment Manufacturers including Airbus, Bosch, General Electric, Subaru – and four out of ten Formula 1 racing teams – rely on Neural Concept’s platform to place Engineering Intelligence at the heart of their product development process.

The platform combines Neural Concept’s proprietary technology with unique data analysis, MLOps, and application deployment capabilities to make Engineering Intelligence central to the product simulation and development processes. It dramatically improves collaboration across data-science, simulation, and design teams in order to enhance and accelerate innovation. Neural Concept is proven to reduce end-to-end product development times by up to 75%; accelerate product simulation by up to 10x; and improve product characteristics, including efficiency, safety, speed, and aerodynamics, by up to 30%.

The Series B funding news follows the recent unveiling of a close technical collaboration with NVIDIA, allowing Neural Concept to optimize performance of physics-driven deep learning models on NVIDIA GPUs and CUDA software and to jointly push the frontiers of the field.

Deborah Pittet, Senior Principal at lead investor Forestay Capital said, “Neural Concept has pioneered 3D Deep Learning – the leading-edge of AI – and demonstrated phenomenal traction and results with customers in various industries around the world. We are thrilled to be partnering with the company’s world-class visionary team and lead this significant Series B, which will accelerate its global growth and reshape the way engineering companies around the world develop and design products.”

Jean Nations at the D. E. Shaw group said, “We are excited to embark on this journey with Neural Concept and to support its growth. We believe Neural Concept can be a powerful accelerant for product engineering teams bringing products to market, as demonstrated by the dozens of global manufacturers already utilizing its innovative platform. This funding helps position Neural Concept to extend Engineering Intelligence to many more.”

Pierre Baqué, Co-founder and CEO at Neural Concept said, “The world is facing unprecedented global challenges that urgently require innovative engineering solutions. Engineering teams are under enormous pressure to deliver smarter, safer, and more sustainable products faster – but to do this requires a fundamentally new approach. Neural Concept allows Original Equipment Manufacturers to place leading-edge 3D Deep Learning and Generative AI right at the heart of their product development – improving collaboration and processes while helping identify innovative solutions. We are delighted to work with our new investors Forestay Capital and the D. E. Shaw group and all of our existing investors to take the company to the next level. This $27 million Series B funding round will allow us to build on our strong commercial success and help more OEMs around the world harness the full potential of Engineering Intelligence to deliver better products faster.”

Watch the video to learn more about Neural Concept and Engineering Intelligence:

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Editors Notes

About Neural Concept: www.neuralconcept.com

Founded in 2018, Neural Concept provides a leading end-to-end platform which places 3D AI at the center of the product development process to revolutionize the way engineers conceptualize, design, and validate products with Engineering Intelligence. The company – which was spun out from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and is backed by world renowned investors including Forestay Capital, the D. E. Shaw group, Alven, CNB Capital, HTGF, and Aster Group – works with 40% of the largest European and Asian OEMs and 25% of the world’s top 100 tier-1 suppliers.

About Forestay Capital: www.forestay.vc

Founded in 2018, Forestay is an early-growth stage tech fund and part of B-FLEXION, an entrepreneurial private investment firm founded by Ernesto Bertarelli. Forestay invests in visionary teams reaching growth inflection points and partners with them to create future category leaders. The fund supports start-ups with investments between $10M and $20M in Europe, Israel, and opportunistically on the East Coast of the US.

About The D. E. Shaw Group: www.deshaw.com

The D. E. Shaw group is a global investment and technology development firm with more than $60 billion in investment capital as of March 1, 2024, and offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. Since the D. E. Shaw group’s founding in 1988, the firm has earned a reputation for successful investing based on innovation, careful risk management, and the quality and depth of its staff. The D. E. Shaw group has a significant presence in the world's capital markets, investing in a wide range of companies and financial instruments in both developed and developing economies.

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