Tech start-up for engineers to save money on R&D raises £8.5m

A BRITISH start-up developing artificial intelligence tools for engineers has raised £8.5m from investors including New York fund Insight Partners and the founder of Formula E.

Monolith AI, founded in 2016 as a spin-out from Imperial College London, has built software that aims to save engineering firms millions of pounds in research and development costs.

The start-up develops an artificial intelligence programme that analyses all of a company’s engineering data. It can then apply this historic data to new 3D designs, giving engineers insight into how their virtual creations will perform in the real world.

Better use of data could save industry billions of pounds each year; the automotive industry alone spends £100bn on R&D annually.

Monolith’s technology is being used by aerospace giant BAE Systems to speed up its design process, and is also being used by carmakers BMW and Honda and German engineering company Siemens.

The start-up, launched by Imperial College researcher Richard Ahlfeld, last year was one of the first recipients of backing from the Government’s Future Fund, its early stage rescue fund.

Mr Ahlfeld said many engineering companies were grappling with ageing workforces and the risk that expertise and knowledge could be lost as staff retire.

He said programmes such as Monolith helped gather that data into one place, using software to cut down on repetitive tasks and testing.

“Companies have these huge data lakes that they are not using for anything,” he added.

Dave Holmes, operations director at BAE, said: “Our products create massive amounts of data throughout their entire life cycle, bringing this data together requires a new set of skills, no blueprint exists yet because the ways of working have changed significantly.”

The Future Fund was launched as a £250m fund, but ultimately dishing out £1bn in convertible loans to start-ups throughout the pandemic. The Government’s loans convert into equity when one of its portfolio companies completes a funding round.

Mr Ahlfeld said: “This year, the Government is seeing excellent returns on its Future Fund investment.”

Monolith’s funding is from Insight Partners, a US private equity fund and early backer of e-commerce company Shopify and social network Twitter.

It has also secured funding from Alejandro Agag, the founder of electric vehicle racing franchises Formula E and Extreme E. It takes Monolith’s total raised to £10.6m.