Manufacturers globally are facing unprecedented challenges. The need for improved performance, safety, and sustainability is increasing, while pressure to reduce costs and accelerate innovation continues to rise. Neural Concept solves these challenges by empowering engineering teams to develop better products faster using AI.
Neural Concept, an Engineering Intelligence platform headquartered in Switzerland, transforms product design with 3D Deep Learning. In a recent development, the company snapped $27 million in Series B funding.
The round was led by UK-Swiss venture capital firm Forestay Capital (invested in Convelio and Hyperscaler), with the D. E. Shaw group and existing investors Alven, CNB Capital, HTGF, and Aster Group. This round follows the $9 million Series A round raised back in 2022.
Funds raised in the latest round will be used to consolidate Neural Concept’s technology leadership in the field and to accelerate its global recruitment and growth to meet strong customer demand across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the US.
End-to-end engineering AI platform
Founded in 2018 by Pierre Baqué and EPFL professors Francois Fleuret and Pascal Fua, Neural Concept is a spin-off from EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. It provides an end-to-end platform that places 3D AI at the centre of the product development process to revolutionise how engineers conceptualise, design, and validate products with Engineering Intelligence.
The platform combines Neural Concept’s proprietary technology with unique data analysis, MLOps, and application deployment capabilities to make Engineering Intelligence central to the product simulation and development processes. It dramatically improves collaboration across data science, simulation, and design teams to enhance and accelerate innovation.
As per the company, Neural Concept is proven to reduce end-to-end product development times such as EV designing by up to 75%, accelerate product simulation by up to 10x, and improve product characteristics, including efficiency, safety, speed, and aerodynamics by up to 30%.
Recently, the company announced a close technical collaboration with NVIDIA, allowing Neural Concept to optimise the performance of physics-driven deep learning models on NVIDIA GPUs and CUDA software and jointly push the field’s frontiers.
Deborah Pittet, Senior Principal at lead investor Forestay Capital said, “Neural Concept has pioneered 3D Deep Learning – the leading edge of AI – and demonstrated phenomenal traction and results with customers in various industries around the world. We are thrilled to partner with the company’s world-class visionary team and lead this significant Series B, which will accelerate its global growth and reshape the way engineering companies develop and design products.”
Jean Nations at the D. E. Shaw group said, “We are excited to embark on this journey with Neural Concept and to support its growth. We believe Neural Concept can be a powerful accelerant for product engineering teams bringing products to market, as demonstrated by the dozens of global manufacturers already utilising its innovative platform. This funding helps position Neural Concept to extend Engineering Intelligence to many more.”
Pierre Baqué, Co-founder and CEO at Neural Concept said, “Neural Concept allows Original Equipment Manufacturers to place leading-edge 3D Deep Learning and Generative AI right at the heart of their product development – improving collaboration and processes while helping identify innovative solutions. We are delighted to work with our new investors Forestay Capital and the D.E.Shaw group and all of our existing investors to take the company to the next level. This $27 million Series B funding round will allow us to build on our strong commercial success and help more OEMs around the world harness the full potential of Engineering Intelligence to deliver better products faster.”
