US-based engineering software company Nominal has raised $80 million in new funding, bringing its valuation to $1 billion.
The funding comes as the company expands tools designed to help hardware engineering teams manage complex data and integrate artificial intelligence into their workflows.
The round was led by Founders Fund, with participation from existing investors including Sequoia, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Red Glass, and Lightspeed.
Fund deployment
The company plans to use the new funding in three main areas. First, it intends to continue developing its core products, including Nominal Core and Nominal Connect, which are designed to help engineers collect, organise, and analyse technical data from testing environments and operational systems.
Second, the company plans to pursue strategic acquisitions, particularly in the United States and Europe, to expand its capabilities and strengthen its technology platform.
Third, the company aims to broaden the industries it serves. While Nominal initially focused on aerospace and defence engineering teams, it now sees similar data management challenges across sectors, including automotive, industrial manufacturing, robotics, and energy systems.
Building software infrastructure
Nominal was founded by Cameron McCord, Bryce Ferguson, and Jason Hyon, who previously worked in engineering environments where managing large volumes of hardware test data was a persistent challenge.
Nominal develops software that helps engineering teams working on large-scale hardware systems organise and analyse operational data generated during testing and development.
These systems often include projects in aerospace, defence, energy, manufacturing, and robotics, where teams collect large volumes of data from sensors, test equipment, and operational environments.
The company’s platform focuses on managing the data supply chain for hardware programs, covering the process from instrumentation and data collection to storage, analysis, and reporting.
By structuring engineering data and making it searchable and accessible, the platform aims to simplify the application of AI tools to engineering workflows for organisations.
According to the company, several major defence and industrial organisations already use its platform to manage test data and operational information from critical systems such as satellites, rocket engines, and other complex hardware programs.
7x growth in revenue
Nominal says it has seen rapid growth since its previous funding round, roughly ten months ago.
The company reported that its revenue has increased sevenfold, while its workforce has expanded to around 135 employees across offices in Austin, New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and London.
