aPriori Technologies, the leading provider of digital manufacturing software featuring design for manufacturability (DFM) and cost (DTC) solutions, announces today that the company has recently completed a Series D investment round of $30 million. Co-led by Bruce Clarke of PBJ Capital and Gaurav Tewari of Omega Venture Partners, the investment brings the valuation for the company to $280 million.
The digital transformation happening in manufacturing is driving significant demand for aPriori Cost Insight solutions that provide automated early design and production guidance through digital manufacturing insights critical across the product development and production lifecycle. BIS Research has estimated the market for DFM/DTC solutions at $5 billion.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, aPriori cloud-related Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) grew by 400%. This growth was achieved in large part due to early market acceptance of aPriori’s newest cloud-based product offering, Cost Insight Generate. This revolutionary product connects to a company’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system, automatically initiating a detailed manufacturability and cost analysis–with minimal interaction required by the end-user–whenever a new or modified part is submitted to the PLM system. If Cost Insight Generate detects a potential manufacturability issue, the end-user is notified via email, and can then utilize aPriori Cost Insight Design manufacturability guidance to quickly eliminate the problem.
“Cost Insight Design and Cost Insight Generate are just the first in a series of collaborative cloud-based applications that we are bringing to market. This new investment will be used to hire additional staff to further accelerate the development of this suite of role-based cloud applications for engineering, sourcing, and supplier teams,” said Stephanie Feraday, aPriori President and Chief Executive Officer. “The investment will also help to expand the company’s sales and marketing organizations to enable broader penetration of the global manufacturing market, their supply chains, and government organizations such as the Department of Defense.”
“We have watched this market begin to heat up over the past year,” Bruce Clarke of PBJ Capital noted, “and we are optimistic that aPriori will continue to maintain its leadership position by introducing new manufacturing simulation technology that completely transforms how product innovations are delivered to market at maximum profitability.”
Gaurav Tewari of Omega Venture Partners elaborated on Bruce’s comments: “As part of our due diligence, we interviewed a number of aPriori customers. The overwhelming consensus was that companies are saving millions of dollars on cost of goods sold (COGS) every year by leveraging aPriori’s actionable insights and automation capabilities, which significantly improves product profitability,” he added. “Every CEO should be tasking a team to investigate how this technology can help improve competitiveness and the value of products they are delivering to market.”
“The future for aPriori is incredibly positive,” said Bob Davoli, Chairman of the Board at aPriori and Director at Gutbrain Ventures. “During my career as an investor, I’ve never seen a company that delivers such a strong Return on Investment (ROI) to its customers. Even more remarkable is that no other player has the competitive offering aPriori has, giving them a dominant market position. Furthermore, the deployment process is designed so that Time to Value (TTV) is incredibly short. In just a few months, a customer has typically already earned back their original investment in aPriori, and everything after that contributes directly to reducing COGS and improving product profitability.”
