Our Investment in ToolPath - AI-Powered Machining Automation

Trade conflicts, natural disasters, war, and disease over the past several years have shown that global supply chains are brittle and volatile. Given these vulnerabilities, focus has shifted towards domestic manufacturing to protect economic independence and defend national interests. One of the main challenges in reshoring manufacturing is the supply of skilled labour, with the U.S. expected to have ~2.1M unfilled manufacturing jobs by 2030. 

‍

The only way the US can onshore the manufacturing supply chain and satisfy demand is through automation. This is especially true in CNC machining, where getting from the “art to the part” is too slow and expensive. Solving this problem is the core of Toolpath, an AI-driven platform which automates the front end workflow, from initial job evaluation to the CNC machining plan. 

‍

We expect this automation to lead to the most dramatic step change in CNC machining productivity in recent years. It’ll enable customers to prototype quickly and gain visibility into the costs and viability of their projects. Manufacturers will be able to accept more workflow, increase the scale and scope of projects they accept, and visibility into the projects they should accept. Manufacturers will also save significant time by enabling CNC programmers to increase their throughput and accuracy of their machining plans. 

‍

Moving forward, Toolpath plans to expand its platform to assist all end users, including shop owners, estimators, and CNC programmers, becoming the leading platform in the precision parts manufacturing space. There are currently an estimated 5M CNC machines, expected to grow to 11M by 2035, with the number of CNC programmers expected to remain flat. Toolpath is well positioned to capitalize on this trend and help manufacturers maintain capacity and integrity through automation.

‍

We’re excited to be leading a $10M seed financing in Toolpath, alongside Carl Bass (Former CEO of Autodesk), John Saunders (Saunders Machine Works), Tech Square Ventures, and BLH Venture Partners. 

‍

ToolPath's team is world-class and best positioned to win this market. ToolPath is led by CEO, Al Whatmough who led Fusion at AutoDesk for a decade prior to joining Toolpath. Justin Gray, CTO, is one of the best technologists we've met and co-founded ToolPath after close to 20 years as a NASA rocket scientist!

The company was founded by Andy Powell who we met seven years ago when we invested in his previous Atlanta-based company, CallRail. He proved to be an entrepreneur who experienced a problem, then built a large and profitable business solving it. CallRail has since grown from a startup to $100M+ ARR and emerged as a leader in the marketing analytics space. 

‍

If you’re interested in checking out the product, see the demo here.