SciArt Software, a Madison startup that makes generative design software for engineers, is out fundraising as it aims to grow the seven-year-old business.
SciArt was originally founded in 2012 by Krishnan Suresh, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but was later spun out of the college and relaunched last year.
At that point, Karen Caswelch joined the company as CEO to help scale the business. The founding team also includes and Parveen Yadav, SciArt’s chief technology officer.
SciArt's software allows mechanical engineers to virtually design objects that meet all their weight and size requirements. By using the software to design automotive and engine parts that fit ideal dimensions, it saves engineers the time and money it takes to build something first and then test it to see if it will work.
“In today’s world, everyone who is moving product is focused on moving things as light as possible,” Caswelch said. “Our software does the designing and the testing inside the software.”
Caswelch said SciArt’s software is mostly used for companies building products that move people or cargo, including electric vehicle and aircraft manufacturers. Caswlech wouldn’t disclose any of the startup’s specific clients, but said many of them have reported the software saving them time by 60 percent during the design process.
SciArt sells three versions of its software, depending on the size and need of each client. So far, SciArt has about 30 clients that pay for its SaaS product, Caswelch said.
To continue developing the startup's tech, and expand its sales and marketing efforts, Caswelch says she has been busy fundraising a $1.5 million seed round.
In October, SciArt raised more than $500,000 from the Idea Fund of La Crosse, and the financing has largely been used to add more developers to its team, Caswelch said. The startup also raised $75,000 last year from the Small Business Innovation Research Advance program to commercialize its technology.
SciArt has gone through several accelerators in the past few years, including the 12-week WERCBench Labs accelerator put on by Milwaukee-based Mid-west Energy Research Consortium in late 2016 and gener8tor's gBeta Madison spring cohort in 2016.
“It’s an exciting product,” Caswelch said. “We’re getting absolute validation in the market with our product."
