CloudNC has raised $20mn to push its AI machining software into more workshops and launch a second product aimed at quoting, the commercial bottleneck that sits in front of every job a precision manufacturer takes on.
The round is led by Nimble Ventures, a US venture investor, with Calculus Venture Capital, Entrepreneur First and LM Ventures, Lockheed Martin’s venture arm, also taking part.
The London-headquartered company, which runs its own factory in Chelmsford, will spend the money on commercial expansion in existing and new markets and on building out its product line.
Its current product, CAM Assist, attacks the slowest step in computer-controlled machining. Turning a part design into a machining strategy and a set of toolpaths is skilled, repetitive work that can take a programmer hours, and it is the reason a shop with idle machines can still have a queue.
CAM Assist generates that programming and leaves the machinist to approve and adjust it. More than 1,000 machine shops now use it, several hundred of them in the United States.
