Generative AI is steering a new era of engineering across advanced industries, including automotive, aerospace, renewables, and materials production. In the automotive sector, generative AI is revolutionising vehicle design, optimising structures for enhanced performance and fuel efficiency. In aerospace, it is facilitating the creation of lighter, space thermometers, and more aerodynamic components, contributing to improved aircraft efficiency and reduced environmental impact. In the renewables domain, generative AI is accelerating the development of innovative solutions for harnessing clean energy, shaping the future of sustainable power generation.
Now, London-based PhysicsX, a startup bringing the power of generative AI to enable engineering in advanced industries including automotive, aerospace, renewables, and materials production, raised $32M in a Series A round led by General Catalyst (known for investments in Airbnb, Deliveroo, Stripe and more). Standard Investments, NGP, Radius Capital, and KKR co-founder and co-executive chairman, Henry Kravis, also participated in the round.
The funding will accelerate PhysicsX’s growth across customer delivery, platform engineering, and fundamental research, expand the capabilities of its tooling, and advance its AI models and methods.
As part of the round, entrepreneur Jim Baum, General Catalyst XIR (Executive in Residence) will join the company’s Board, bringing over 25 years of experience growing and managing cutting-edge technology businesses including at Netezza, Endeca, and PTC. Jeremy Palmer, former Chairman and CEO of QuantumBlack and a former Senior Partner at McKinsey, has also joined as Chairman.
Emerges from stealth
Founded by Robin Tuluie and Jacomo Corbo, PhysicsX is a deep tech company of scientists and engineers and born out of numerical physics and Formula One. The startup is working at the edge of advanced Computer Aided Engineering, physics simulation, and machine learning to solve its customers’ most difficult engineering challenges across design, manufacturing, and operational control. PhysicsX operates in sectors including Space and Aerospace, Additive Manufacturing, Electric Vehicles, Renewables, and Materials Production.
Emerging from stealth to meet the needs of engineers across sectors, PhysicsX is building AIs that dramatically accelerate accurate physics simulation, enable generative engineering solutions, vastly accelerate some of the most time-consuming activities in the engineering process, and make complex engineering across industries more accessible.
Further, PhysicsX is a team of over 50 engineers, machine learning and software engineers, and data scientists with backgrounds spanning numerical physics, enterprise AI, and advanced engineering.
Robin Tuluie, founder and co-CEO of PhysicsX, said: “Engineering design processes were transformed by numerical simulation and the availability of high-performance compute infrastructure. The move from numerical simulation to deep learning represents a similar leap and will unlock new levels of product performance and ways of practicing engineering itself. PhysicsX exists to help pioneer and enable that transformation, giving engineers and manufacturers superpowers in bringing new technologies to the real world.”
Jacomo Corbo, co-founder and co-CEO PhysicsX, said: “Our customers are designing the most important technologies of our time, including wind turbines, aircraft engines, electric vehicles, semiconductors, metals, and biofuels. They are exceeding the limits of today’s Computer Aided Engineering tooling- which is the basis for our own collaboration with them and is the starting point for the problems we set our technology against. We’re delighted that this financing will enable us to partner more deeply with our customers to enable breakthrough engineering.”
Larry Bohn, Managing Director, General Catalyst, said: “PhysicsX expands engineering boundaries in crucial sectors, led by a team deeply skilled in simulation engineering and machine learning. With credibility, customer relationships, and technical expertise, we believe PhysicsX is poised to transform engineering in complex industries. This aligns with our vision for industrial transformation and positions PhysicsX with the opportunity to create a category-defining company in advanced industries.”
