Lausanne-based firm Neural Concept, which develops AI-powered software that accelerates product design and simulation for engineering teams, has secured $100 million in a Series C round led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from Forestay Capital, Alven, HTGF, D.E. Shaw Ventures, and Aster Capital.
- Founded in 2019 by Pierre Baqué, Théophile Allard, Thomas von Tschammer, and Dr. Jonathan Donier as a spin-out from EPFL in Lausanne, Neural Concept develops an AI-based engineering software platform for product design and simulation.
- The company builds domain-specific AI models for engineering, designed to work directly with CAD and simulation tools used in industrial product development. Its technology analyzes 3D geometry alongside physical constraints and simulation data, allowing engineers to predict performance outcomes, such as aerodynamics, thermal behavior, structural strength, or electromagnetics, earlier in the design process.
- Neural Concept’s platform integrates with widely used CAD systems including NX, CATIA, and SolidWorks, and simulation software such as Ansys, Abaqus, Fluent, and Star-CCM+. Instead of replacing simulations, the AI learns from historical and generated simulation data to guide design decisions, reduce the number of required simulations, and surface trade-offs between performance, cost, and constraints.
- The firm is used primarily by large industrial organizations in sectors such as automotive, aerospace, energy, semiconductors, and consumer electronics, where complex physics and long development cycles are common. Its software is typically deployed as part of enterprise engineering workflows rather than as a standalone design tool.
Details of the deal
- Neural Concept plans to use the $100 million Series C funding to accelerate product development with a generative CAD capability, expand its global go-to-market teams, and strengthen partnerships with companies such as Nvidia, Siemens, Ansys, Microsoft, and AWS.
- The funding will also enhance its physics-aware AI models and enterprise engineering workflows, supporting broader deployment across industries including automotive, aerospace, energy, semiconductors, and consumer electronics.
"Advances in AI are transforming engineering from a process of trial and error into a data-driven workflow where tradeoffs and constraints can be understood and optimised from the start. This investment enables us to fast-track our progress toward establishing the intelligence layer powering every engineering team, worldwide," claims Dr. Pierre Baqué, CEO and founder of Neural Concept
