CADDi Raises $114 Million To Fix Manufacturing’s Biggest Bottleneck With AI
Factories have decades of drawings, parts, and supplier info trapped in PDFs, CAD files, and Excel sheets. But nobody can find it. Most factories buy the same part again from The post CADDi Raises $114 Million To Fix Manufacturing’s Biggest Bottleneck With AI appeared first on Ventureburn .
CADDi, a manufacturing-focused AI startup based in Tokyo and Chicago, has raised $114 million in Series D funding to solve the industry's biggest bottleneck—finding and utilizing existing engineering knowledge. With a valuation of $1.2 billion, the company aims to become the AI layer for manufacturing by turning vast amounts of trapped data in PDFs, CAD files, and Excel sheets into searchable, actionable information.
Founded in 2017 by Yushiro Kato and Aki Kobashi, CADDi's patented AI scans uploaded drawings, 2D and 3D designs, PDFs, and spec sheets, extracting shapes, dimensions, materials, notes, and even handwritten annotations. It then links this information to real purchase data, supplier details, defect rates, and stock levels. When engineers need a part, they can search for duplicates across years, saving institutional knowledge and enabling new employees to make informed decisions without constantly consulting experienced engineers.
The $114 million Series D round, led by Moore Strategic Ventures, Coreline Ventures, Woven Capital (Toyota's growth fund), and HR Tech Fund from Recruit Holdings, brings the company's total funding to $234 million. Notable existing investors Atomico, Globis Capital Partners, and JPS Growth Funds have also reinvested. One undisclosed new investor joined the round. Salesforce Ventures also participated, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
CADDi currently employs 900 people, up from 600 earlier this year, with over half of Japan's 100 largest manufacturers as customers. The startup's primary goal is to organize all engineering data first, paving the way for automation in procurement, quality checks, and supplier negotiations. With the new funding, CADDi plans to develop advanced AI models capable of reading 3D CAD, 2D drawings, and quality data natively, providing suggestions based on processed information.
Additionally, the company will focus on expanding its presence in the US manufacturing sector, leveraging federal funds to bring supply chains home, while also hiring engineers and sales professionals in North America and Japan.
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