Just six months after they announced $30M in Series C funding, Onshape has announced $80M in new funding, led by Silicon Valley firm Andreessen Horowitz, known for their investment in Airbnb, Box, Facebook, Github, Twitter, Skype and others. This brings Onshape’s funding efforts to a grand, grin-inducing total of $144M.
Onshape is the browser-based, 3D CAD software able to run on desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile devices. It requires no install and no upkeep, includes version control and a completely parametric, project-based modeling environment. Coming out of beta last March, they recently added 2D drawing functionality and, even though it currently lacks advance modeling features like surfacing and sheet metal, it’s the most complete browser-based solution to date.
While I would like to see features as the focus for the new funding (and imagine some of it is), Onshape says it “will use the new investment to significantly expand worldwide sales and marketing efforts and increase its R&D and strong customer support.”
What’s even more amazing than the amount of new funding is their pre-money valuation, according to Pitchbook Data, of $800 million. Yep, just shy of the $1 billion mark, and a jump from their Series C pre-money valuation of $330 million. All for a company that launched in beta less than a year ago.
The backing and support from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is huge. If you’re a software company, this is whose money you want, this is who you want on your board. Marc Andreessen brought the world its first browser, now he and team are sitting next to the company who have brought the world its first browser-based 3D design software. Peter Levine of a16z says, “Onshape’s product demo was one of the best we’ve seen, and points to one of the last unmet needs in computing,” and “The real reason Onshape is now possible is the killer founding team, which knows a thing or two about CAD.”
They also know a thing or two about cloud dev, collaboration and growing a team that can deliver on their ‘Future of CAD’ focus. As Oleg Shilovitsky points out, this puts Onshape in uncharted territory for a CAD Company–No other has achieved this level of funding in the past and it puts them in a position to be around for a good long time.
An interesting result I hope to see from this is an increase in browser-based 3D design applications. It boggles me to this day why we haven’t seen more. Could CAD apps be the new, hot commodity for startup investors and firms? There’s certainly room for them and, if you can nail that product demo, the funding is certainly there.
