Camas-based software maker Glassdome secured $8.6 million from investors that the growing startup will use to build out its team.
The company has 35 employees and makes software for industrial customers across manufacturing, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, chemical industries and increasingly within the electric vehicle battery space.
The software is used to track environmental and efficiency information that companies need to meet regulatory requirements. The software falls under the Life Cycle Assessment category and replaces previous methods using tables of estimated industry averages. Glassdome is able to collect plant-floor data and offer more real-time information and accuracy, according to the company.
The company, which was founded in 2019, has about a dozen paying customers, including LG House and Healthcare, CJ Logistics, Samyang Foods and Orion. Two major Korean EV battery makers have also signed on, said co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Joshua Charnin-Aker.
This round was led by South Korean venture firm Atinum Investment and included Primer Sazze Partners, Dunamu, Murex and Korean conglomerate Lotte. Previous backers were Crit Ventures and Neuralink co-founder Max Hodak.
The company’s base out of Camas comes from a previous job Charnin-Aker had with a nonprofit in Washougal. He was based in the Portland area, and once the Covid-19 pandemic hit, San Francisco-based co-founder and CEO Simon Kim moved up to Washington as well. The two were classmates at Stanford University.
With this funding, the company intends to add staff in carbon accounting and life cycle assessment as well as systems integrators and process engineers. The company has several open positions on its website.
The company is expecting to see more adoption of its technology driven by recent moves in the United States and Europe around EV battery making. Specifically, governments are increasingly looking at adding disclosures and other requirements around sustainability, recycling and labeling.
“Industrial software hasn’t kept pace with consumer and office solutions,” said Charnin-Aker in a written statement. “The new (Security and Exchange Commission) proposal is estimated to increase U.S. companies' paperwork burden by $10.2 billion per year. We want to help decrease that figure.”
