You remember Vention, right? The web-based machine builder and social marketplace? They just popped the champagne announcing a seed round of $3.5 million CAD ($2.8M USD). The financing was spearheaded by White Star Capital and a band of previous investors, Bolt and Real Ventures.
That’s no small bag of coin. And it comes on the heels of a few significant developments for the Vention platform. First though, if you’re not familiar with what Vention does, have a look at a new video on, their pride and joy, the 3D MachineBuilder:
Every time I see what can be done with Vention, I wonder why more 3D CAD software isn’t more like this. I do think it’s a direction we’re moving toward–more automation, context-aware user interfaces and more intelligent modeling and assembly processes–and Vention is leading the way. So, what’s happened with them over the past year?
- They went from closed to open beta (June 2017)
- Celebrated their first anniversary (July 2017)
- 3D MachineBuilder used 15,000+ hours for over 3000 assemblies
- 130 feature upgrades over 25 releases
- MachineMotion Controller released
- MachineApps open-source automation program tool released
- Production and delivery of assemblies to North America, Europe and Asia
- 200+ public assemblies published on the Vention marketplace
Vention is focused on one thing though–Machine Design. When I think about modeling an assembly of a test bench, utility cart, shelving system or assembly station, traditional CAD now seems tedious (even with all the standard hardware modeled)… And that doesn’t include procurement. Vention brings the standards, the assembly, and the procurement all together. Does that make it a new category of CAD software? Vention CTO, Max Windisch, thinks so. Here’s what he had to say:
Over the last 12 months, we established the foundation of a new category of CAD software. Our sole focus on machine design combined with tight hardware component integration enabled us to build an array of intelligent and automated features that could never have been possible with traditional CAD software. We are now entering a new phase of development with a greater focus on design automation, large assembly management, and In-CAD industrial automation.”
The focus on Machine Design alone surely helps in the automation of going from design to build. But I can’t help but think how this could apply to other assembly design or CAD in general. Here’s looking forward to more software companies considering the process as a whole and props to Vention for getting there first.
