CADDi raises $114 million to solve manufacturing problems using artificial intelligence
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CADDi raises $114 million to solve manufacturing problems using artificial intelligence

In many factories, blueprints, part data, and supplier information have accumulated over decades, stored in PDF, CAD file, and Excel table formats, but remain inaccessible. Due to the inability to find existing data, most enterprises are forced to repurchase the same parts from new suppliers at new prices.

To solve this problem and become an artificial intelligence for the manufacturing sector, CADDi has raised $114 million in funding.

CADDi, headquartered in Tokyo and Chicago, recently secured $114 million in a Series D round. This amount values the company at $1.2 billion, which is higher than the $470 million valuation in March 2025. The total amount raised now stands at $234 million.

The company was founded in 2017 by Yusiro Kato and Aki Kobayashi. Eight investors participated in the round. New participants include Moore Strategic Ventures, Coreline Ventures, Woven Capital, which is Toyota's growth fund, and HR Tech Fund from Recruit Holdings. Existing investors Atomico, Globis Capital Partners, and JPS Growth Funds also reinvested. Additionally, according to the WSJ, Salesforce Ventures joined. The startup currently has 900 employees, up from 600 employees at the beginning of this year.

CADDi initially launched a product called CADDi Drawer. Users upload CAD files, 2D drawings, PDF documents, and specifications. The company's patented AI scans these files, reading shapes, dimensions, materials, notes, and even handwritten text. It then links this drawing to actual purchasing data: how much was previously paid, what the defect rate was, who the supplier was, and whether the part is in stock.

Thus, when a part is needed, the user can search for it like a Google search, for example: 'Show all brackets similar to this, costing less than $5 and with a defect rate below 2%.' The system finds duplicates that exist across different years. CADDi also captures the knowledge of experienced engineers regarding which suppliers are suitable for which tasks, helping new specialists make decisions without constantly consulting veterans.

CADDi's clients include Yanmar, Subaru, Kawasaki, Mitsubishi, Amerequip, and YKK. More than half of Japan's top 100 manufacturers use the company's services. Sales growth is observed annually. Although Kato has not disclosed exact revenue figures, the growth is evident. Coreline Ventures stated that it invested in CADDi because it is one of the few Japanese startups capable of entering the US market. DCM first supported the company 8 years ago.

The $114 million raised will be directed towards developing a production-focused application. CADDi's next steps involve AI models capable of natively reading 3D CAD, 2D drawings, and quality data, not just performing searches but also offering recommendations based on processed information. The funding will also be used to expand CADDi's operations in the US. The US manufacturing sector is receiving federal funds to bring supply chains back home. The company opened its US headquarters in Chicago to help new factories get up and running quickly.

Furthermore, CADDi will allocate capital to hire engineers and sales specialists in North America and Japan. Bloomberg is used in finance, and Salesforce in sales. Manufacturing has never had a comprehensive system for recording engineering knowledge. CADDi's premise is that by organizing all engineering data, everything else can be automated: procurement, quality checks, and supplier negotiations. With the new $114 million and a $1.2 billion valuation, the company has gained the resources to become such a platform.

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Factory raises $200 million at $5 billion valuation to scale AI software development
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Factory has successfully raised $200 million in a new funding round, achieving a valuation of $5 billion. Investors in this round include Blackstone, Khosla Ventures, and Sequoia Capital. Insight Partners, Evantic Capital, and Sound Ventures also participated.

Factory was founded in 2023 by Matan Greenberg and Eno Reyes. Other investors included NEA, Mantis VC, and Clearlake. The round also attracted angel investors, including Nico Rosberg, Brad Gerstner, and Mark Benioff.

The new funding increases the company's total capital raised to over $400 million. This represents significant growth compared to the $1.5 billion valuation set in April. Thus, in five months, Factory's valuation has more than tripled; previously, the company had raised $150 million at that same valuation.

The latest capital raise reflects growing enterprise demand for autonomous software development tools. The San Francisco-based company aims to increase the degree of autonomy in software development. Its platform enables large enterprises to create, test, and maintain software using artificial intelligence agents throughout the entire development lifecycle.

Factory differs from platforms focused on individual coding agents because it provides enterprises with a unified system for managing software development. The platform allows companies to control the training process of their 'software factory,' as well as manage models and system deployment. Factory can operate through its managed cloud infrastructure, or clients can deploy it on-premises or in fully isolated environments, giving enterprises greater control over AI-driven development.

The company reports that its platform is used by hundreds of thousands of developers. Factory's clients include Nvidia, Blackstone, Royal Bank of Canada, Palo Alto Networks, and Adobe. This growing client portfolio underscores the increased interest from the corporate sector in AI-powered software development.

Enterprises are increasingly using AI to boost engineering productivity. Factory believes that companies are moving from using individual coding assistants to building broader software factories around autonomous systems. Matan Greenberg noted: 'Major enterprises worldwide are transitioning from individual coding agents to software factories,' adding that clients confirm the potential for rearchitecting software development systems, although the company is still in the early stages of this transition.

Factory's strategy is focused on creating autonomous software factories that operate continuously under human supervision. Enterprises can regulate measurable outcomes while AI performs development tasks. The company competes in the rapidly growing AI coding market. Factory plans to use the new capital to support further growth, focusing particularly on platform expansion and adoption within the corporate sector.

Kinetix AI raises $75 million angel funding round to develop AI model hardware
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Kinetix AI raises $75 million angel funding round to develop AI model hardware

Engineers have long faced a problem: artificial intelligence capable of writing novels in seconds struggles to grasp fragile glass without crushing it. This issue stems from a significant gap between digital intelligence and physical execution.

Bridging this gap requires flawless and continuous feedback between software systems and mechanical bodies. To solve this narrow problem, Kinetix AI has secured $75 million in a major and significant angel funding round, marking a serious step forward in embodied intelligence.

The historic funding round was led by Vertex Ventures, the powerful venture arm of Singapore's Temasek Holdings. F&G Venture and Wanshi Capital also joined the round to invest over 500 million RMB (approximately $75 million) in the early-stage startup, Kinetix AI.

Kinetix AI is not a small garage project. Founded in September 2025, the company has rapidly grown to nearly 200 employees. Driving Kinetix AI's rapid growth is CEO Yu Ze, who previously commercialized autonomous mining trucks for Huawei.

The team also includes Luo Ping, an outstanding deputy dean from HKU, and Zheng Qunyuan, former head of robotics at XPeng. This group possesses deep knowledge combining academic theory, autonomous vehicle logic, and manufacturing capabilities.

Many robotics companies cut corners on quality, but Kinetix does not accept this. The company firmly believes that since the world's infrastructure is built for humans, robots must look and move exactly like us to integrate seamlessly.

Their flagship creation, KAIBot, stands 1.73 meters tall and boasts an impressive 115 degrees of freedom. It is distinguished by its high quality and ultra-realism. Although creating such a robot requires significantly higher initial costs, and the supply chain is a nightmare, co-founder Zheng Qunyuan argues that starting with cheap, low-quality equipment is simply foolish. By locking down a true human form factor, they ensure their AI models will not fail as soon as any joint is updated.

Imagine a robot that doesn't just mimic the human silhouette but perfectly matches human motion data. When the hardware directly reflects our biology, algorithmic work transfers effortlessly.

The core magic happens thanks to the attracted capital, which is directed towards accelerating their closed ecosystem. This can be visualized as a three-headed monster. First, it involves collecting multimodal, egocentric data. Then, this raw data is fed directly into the native fundamental model embodied in the body. Finally, hardware such as KAIBot and the highly maneuverable KAI Hand physically executes the learned actions.

This continuous loop creates an 'intelligence flywheel.' As the robot collects sensory data from the real world, the AI model becomes smarter, instantly enhancing the capabilities of the physical hardware. There is no longer a need to rebuild the physical machine with every software update.

The system's dynamism was demonstrated at the 2026 World Games for Human Robotics, where their system played table tennis against world champion Ding Ning. The goal is to create a premium class of robots ready for complex real-world tasks.

Cognition raises $2 billion with a $48 billion valuation to develop AI coding company
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Cognition raises $2 billion with a $48 billion valuation to develop AI coding company

Amid growing demand for software and a shortage of engineers who hinder teams from completing features, fixing vulnerabilities, and updating systems, Cognition has introduced a solution based on AI coding tools. The core idea is to allow engineers to act as architects while artificial intelligence agents perform the actual coding, testing, and deployment.

Cognition AI successfully raised $2 billion in a Series E round. The round was led by new investors Andreessen Horowitz and Accel, with participation from existing partners including Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and Avenir.

Cognition's annual revenue increased from $492 million in May to nearly $900 million currently. The startup has developed Devin—an autonomous software development agent capable of planning, writing, testing, and deploying code with minimal human involvement.

Devin differs from simple code auto-completion tools like Copilot because it operates based on high-level requirements. The user only needs to give a command, such as 'fix this bug' or 'create this function.' Devin independently determines the necessary steps, writes the code, verifies it, resolves any shortcomings, and then deploys it to a secure test environment.

Recent feature additions include Devin Auto-Triage for analyzing production incidents, Devin Security Swarm for finding code vulnerabilities, and Devin Automations, which runs agent tasks via Slack, GitHub, and Linear.

Large corporations are already using the product. Cognition's clients include Nvidia for chip design, GE Aerospace in the aviation industry, Citi in financial services, Mercedes-Benz in the automotive industry, and Goldman Sachs. Since the system is not tied to one AI company, it can select the most suitable AI 'brain' for a specific task, whether it be OpenAI, Anthropic, or Cognition's own development. Engineers focus on design and verification, while agents handle execution.

Scaling AI coding requires significant expenditure, as Cognition leases a large number of Nvidia chips, costing them hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Experts predict that the company's expenses could reach $800 million just in 2026. To address this, Cognition is training its own model based on open-source alternatives, aiming to reduce dependence on expensive third-party models and approach the break-even point.

The company is also expanding Devin's capabilities and entering new markets. Annual revenue is expected to reach $4–5 billion by the end of 2026. The growing demand for software is driven by AI development: every company needs AI features, but implementing them requires code, creating a closed loop where AI needs more software, and software needs more AI for writing. Cognition is betting that this cycle is so massive that it can support several $50 billion companies.

CEO Scott Wu's vision is for engineers to transform into AI agent managers. Instead of writing every line of code, they will focus on verifying, directing, and approving it. If this model proves successful, the potential for software creation globally could multiply, allowing for faster security fixes and launching startups in weeks instead of months.

Having reached a $48 billion valuation, Cognition has become another giant in AI coding. Four months ago, its valuation was $26 billion, and it could grow even more by next year. Investors are clearly betting that the future of software lies not in one AI, but in many, and that coding will become the first task AI can truly automate at scale.

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