Across the automotive, aerospace, and energy sectors, engineers are racing against time and cost. Designing a new product often means juggling thousands of design iterations, months of simulation, and a high risk of expensive late-stage changes. Neural Concept, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, believes there’s a smarter way forward.
The company has built an engineering platform that applies AI to 3D design data, allowing teams to explore millions of geometry variations up front rather than late in the process. Customers are cutting redesigns by up to 50%, accelerating development cycles by up to 2 years, and collectively saving more than $50 million annually.
Today, Neural Concept has just closed a $100 million Series C round, led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with continued support from Forestay Capital, Alven, HTGF, D.E. Shaw Ventures, and Aster Capital. This brings the total investment amount to $140 million.
The funding will help the company scale globally, strengthen its technology base, and deepen partnerships with major industrial players.
Empowering every engineer with an intelligent design partner
Neural Concept was founded in 2019 by Dr Pierre Baqué, a researcher from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). Baqué tells TFN, “The company was founded from an intuition, born from putting three observations together. There is a business-critical need for engineering companies to accelerate product development and create new hardware innovations. These needs can be directly addressed by eliminating manual and repetitive tasks that engineers are working on a daily basis.
He adds, “In 2016, we were one of the first teams in the world that started working with deep neural networks on 3D data, processing not images, text or sound but native 3D geometries. Engineering companies are working with enormous amounts of simulation and CAD tools, which generate 3D data and information in the context of their digital design processes.”
Unlike Autodesk, Siemens, and Dassault Systèmes, Neural Concept’s CAD-native, physics-aware AI engine reads shapes, anticipates performance, and evaluates millions of potential configurations in real time.
Moreover, the platform integrates seamlessly with industrial software ecosystems from Nvidia, Siemens, Ansys, Microsoft, and AWS, making adoption straightforward for enterprise engineering teams. The company’s customers report faster product cycles, improved performance across safety and efficiency, and measurable AI-driven returns.
Baqué elaborates, “What sets us apart is that we’re product-first and we empower engineers to lead their own transformation, not rely on external consultants. Because Neural Concept is pioneering AI in engineering, addressing market needs before any other company, our platform is very battle-hardened and tailored to the actual engineering processes currently in place for engineering teams.”
What about diversity?
When we asked about diversity, Baqué notes that there are “20% women globally.”
What’s next?
The company plans to roll out a generative CAD capability in early 2026 and expand its commercial presence across North America, Europe, and Asia to meet growing demand.
Baqué concludes, “Within the next 5 years, we want every advanced engineering company in the world to benefit from end-to-end implementation of the digital layer to accelerate their engineering processes. Sustainable and scalable value creation for our customers is our only objective and obsession.”
