PhysicsX, a startup developing generative AIs to enable breakthrough engineering in advanced industries, has raised £25 million in a Series A round.
The London firm aims to dramatically accelerate accurate physics simulation in industries including automotive, aerospace, renewables and materials production.
The round was led by General Catalyst and featured Standard Investments, NGP, Radius Capital and KKR co-founder and co-executive chairman Henry Kravis.
Founded by Robin Tuluie and Jacomo Corbo, PhysicsX is a team of over 50 simulation engineers, machine learning and software engineers and data scientists with backgrounds spanning numerical physics, enterprise AI, and advanced engineering, including in Formula One.
For the last three years, the team has worked with some of the largest and most sophisticated engineering and manufacturing organisations in the world on their most critical engineering challenges.
The funding will accelerate PhysicsX’s growth across customer delivery, platform engineering, and fundamental research, so that the company can be a more effective engineering partner to its customers, expand the capabilities of its tooling, and advance its AI models and methods.
As part of the round, entrepreneur Jim Baum, General Catalyst executive in residence, has joined 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.
“Engineering design processes were transformed by numerical simulation and the availability of high-performance compute infrastructure,” said co-CEO Tuluie. “The move from numerical simulation to deep learning represents a similar leap and will unlock new levels of product performance and ways of practising engineering itself.
“PhysicsX exists to help pioneer and enable that transformation, giving engineers and manufacturers superpowers in bringing new technologies to the real world.”
Larry Bohn, managing director, General Catalyst, added: “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.”