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Funding will accelerate the global expansion of CADDi’s next-generation Manufacturing AI Data Platform CHICAGO, Sept. 16, 2026 — <a href="/en-us/?ref=US-PR-2026-Q4-CADDi-Series-D-Funding-NPI" rel="noopener noreferrer">CADDi</a>, the global technology company that develops the CADDi Manufacturing AI Data Platform, today announced that it has entered into definitive agreements for $114 million at a $1.2 billion valuation in Series D funding, with eight new and existing investors participating, including Moore Strategic Ventures and Coreline Ventures. This funding brings CADDi's total funding to $234 million. Funding overview:● Series D Round Size: $114 million● New Investors: Moore Strategic Ventures, Coreline Ventures, HR Tech Fund LLC*, Woven Capital, and Salesforce Ventures● Existing Investors: Atomico, Globis Capital Partners, JPS Growth Investment Limited Partnership** <h2>Fueling what’s next for manufacturing in the AI era</h2>CADDi is headquartered in Chicago and Tokyo, and is led by Yushiro Kato, co-founder and CEO. In an essay recently published on CADDi's corporate website, titled <a href="https://caddi.com/en-us/essay/2609" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">"Materialization — Making Things in the Age of AI,"</a> Kato wrote, "Over thirty years we made the world of bits more than a hundred times faster. The world of atoms moved at roughly the same speed in most industries. In the AI era, the gap widens further. Even if AI makes thinking ten thousand times faster and produces ten thousand times the theory, the upside from AI gets diluted in the physical world if it still takes four years to mass-produce cars. Solving physical limits means solving this asymmetry."Kato believes the key lies in transitioning manufacturing from sequential execution to parallel processing. In a world where processes that were once executed step-by-step now run simultaneously, a common platform that enables humans and AI across departments to draw on the same information and context becomes indispensable. However, manufacturing data contains highly complex semantics, relationships, and constraints that general-purpose AI cannot adequately address. Domain-specific vertical AI capable of mapping data semantics is essential. The funds raised will be allocated across four areas:● Proprietary AI and technology development● Expansion of the Manufacturing AI Data Platform● Enhancement of global business operations centered on North America● Investment in talent acquisition and development "AI only delivers where a data layer and a semantic layer already exist. In manufacturing that layer is buried in information fragmented across departments and in records that were never digitized at all, which is why horizontal tooling never reaches it,” said Ken Hara, partner at Coreline Ventures. “CADDi has spent four years building it, with some of the most demanding manufacturers in the world as its first customers. Knowledge that lived only in individual experience is becoming an asset the organization, and in time the industry, can use.”“Eighteen months ago, we backed CADDi because we believed they had the potential to build one of the defining AI companies in manufacturing. Since then, that conviction has only grown,” said Luca Eisenstecken, Partner at Atomico. “CADDi is evolving from solving individual manufacturing workflows to building the intelligence layer for the entire manufacturing lifecycle. Its new AI-native data platform connects engineering, procurement, production and quality through a shared semantic data foundation, giving AI agents the context to reason across decades of fragmented manufacturing knowledge. The ambition is enormous, the execution has been exceptional and we’re thrilled to deepen our partnership with Yushiro, Aki and the team for the decade ahead.” <h2>CADDi previews next-generation platform technology</h2>Kato emphasized, “As artificial intelligence pushes past the boundaries of intelligence, the gap between what is conceptualized and what is implemented in the physical world widens. We see this as a broader human challenge that goes well beyond manufacturing: ʻphysical limits.’"CADDi announced the next-generation Manufacturing AI Data Platform in Japan in August 2026 to serve as this foundational platform, initiating the global products release. “At our CADDi Unleash 2026 event, we presented a renewed vision: to overcome physical limits and accelerate physical innovation tenfold. That is our priority from here on, and this commitment is what guided both our recent product rebrand and the development of new products we are bringing to our U.S. customers,” said Kato.Designed as a manufacturing operating system, <a href="/en-us/platform/?ref=US-PR-2026-Q4-CADDi-Series-D-Funding-NPI" rel="noopener noreferrer">CADDi</a> provides a semantic structure to fragmented data, enabling human and AI workflows to run on shared data without manual handoffs. The new product, CADDi Explorer, is a manufacturing discovery engine and the next-generation version of CADDi Drawer. CADDi Agent is a new AI agent that analyzes manufacturing data, makes decisions, and takes action within each company's operating context. CADDi will also offer six domain-specific Workflow Products spanning the manufacturing value chain, enhancing decision-making and execution to drive business-critical impact.The platform's official U.S. launch signals CADDi's full-scale expansion into the United States, the world's second-largest manufacturing market. <h3>About CADDi</h3>CADDi is a global manufacturing technology company driven by the vision to accelerate physical innovation tenfold. Headquartered in Chicago and Tokyo, the company was founded in 2017 by industry veterans Yushiro Kato and Aki Kobashi, formerly of McKinsey and Apple, respectively. CADDi currently serves manufacturing businesses in more than 20 countries, including many of the largest publicly traded companies in Japan and the United States. Total funding stands at $234 million, valuing the company at $1.2 billion.CADDi’s Manufacturing AI Data Platform analyzes, structures, contextualizes, and connects data that has historically been fragmented across the manufacturing value chain. With a proprietary AI model, CADDi offers domain-specific Workflow Products spanning the manufacturing value chain, enhancing decision-making and execution to drive business-critical impact. To learn more, visit <a href="/content/caddi.com/en-us" rel="noopener noreferrer">caddi.com</a>. <h3>Media Contact</h3>Milbien MedinaSenior Manager, Brand Marketing at CADDi<a href="mailto:milbien_medina@caddi.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">milbien_medina@caddi.com</a> View digital copy of this release, including a full list of investor comments on CADDi’s news page: <a href="/en-us/news/?ref=US-PR-2026-Q4-CADDi-Series-D-Funding-NPI" rel="noopener noreferrer">caddi.com/en-us/news</a> *HR Tech Fund LLC is a corporate venture capital entity under Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd.*JPS Growth Investment Limited Partnership and JPS Growth II Investment Limited Partnership, managed by a subsidiary of Japan Post Bank Asset Management Co., Ltd. <img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2F7cde983fcf1d441e947366100e384172"> <h4>Michiko Kato, Chief Investment Officer &amp; Partner, Woven Capital</h4>Manufacturers hold decades of engineering knowledge in their specifications, past project records, and the day-to-day decisions of design, sourcing, and production. Much of it is hard to draw on at the moment it is needed, and as experienced engineers retire, that knowledge becomes harder to pass on.CADDi has built the platform to structure that knowledge and make it retrievable and usable at scale, with the accuracy required to inform real engineering decisions. As AI becomes more capable of handling the complexity and precision these workflows demand, it is this kind of domain-specific intelligence that we believe will define the next era of manufacturing. The company is already helping leading global manufacturers address some of the industry’s most enduring priorities, from reducing defects to shortening lead times and lowering cost, and we are excited to support CADDi on their journey. <h4>Kenichiro Hara, Co-Founder Managing Partner at Coreline Ventures</h4>Coreline is investing in CADDi again at scale. My history with the company goes back further than the firm does. I led CADDi's seed, Series A, and Series A extension, three consecutive rounds, and served on the board through the company's early years. I was in the boardroom when CADDi decided to make the data platform the whole company, setting aside the business it was founded on. Few companies make that call, and fewer make it work. AI only delivers where a data layer and a semantic layer already exist. In manufacturing that layer is buried in information fragmented across departments and in records that were never digitized at all, which is why horizontal tooling never reaches it. CADDi has spent four years building it, with some of the most demanding manufacturers in the world as its first customers. Knowledge that lived only in individual experience is becoming an asset the organization, and in time the industry, can use. What gets built on that foundation, in pursuit of accelerating physical innovation tenfold, is what will make CADDi a global company. <h4>Luca Eisenstecken, Partner at Atomico</h4>Eighteen months ago, we backed CADDi because we believed they had the potential to build one of the defining AI companies in manufacturing. Since then, that conviction has only grown. CADDi is now deeply embedded with many of the world’s most sophisticated manufacturers across Japan, the US and Europe, with customers expanding the platform across teams, workflows and geographies, while the company continues to grow at exceptional speed and efficiency.What excites us even more is what comes next. CADDi is evolving from solving individual manufacturing workflows to building the intelligence layer for the entire manufacturing lifecycle. Its new AI-native data platform connects engineering, procurement, production and quality through a shared semantic data foundation, giving AI agents the context to reason across decades of fragmented manufacturing knowledge. The ambition is enormous, the execution has been exceptional and we’re thrilled to deepen our partnership with Yushiro, Aki and the team for the decade ahead. <h4>Emre Hidekazu Yuasa, Partner, Globis Capital Partners</h4>Since our Series A investment in 2018, this Series D marks our fourth investment in CADDi. World-class growth, proven traction in the U.S. market, and the bold vision behind the AI data platform unveiled recently all give us confidence that CADDi's rapid growth is far from over. Having now become a unicorn, we see this as merely a waypoint toward decacorn and beyond, and we will continue to fully support CADDi's ambitious challenge in the global manufacturing industry.

CADDi Raises $114 Million in Series D at $1.2 Billion Valuation

<h5 class="">Originally featured on <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/caddi-raises-114-million-series-130000779.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">Yahoo Finance</a></h5> CHICAGO, September 16, 2026--(<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 14px;" class="">BUSINESS WIRE</a>)--<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcaddi.com%2Fen-us%2F%3Fref%3DUS-PR-2026-Q4-CADDi-Series-D-Funding-NPI&amp;esheet=54605181&amp;newsitemid=20260916456307&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=CADDi&amp;index=1&amp;md5=7efaf94a60b6e4e121979efd8d74617e" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 14px;" class="">CADDi</a>, the global technology company that develops the CADDi Manufacturing AI Data Platform, today announced that it has entered into definitive agreements for $114 million at a $1.2 billion valuation in Series D funding, with eight new and existing investors participating, including Moore Strategic Ventures and Coreline Ventures. This funding brings CADDi's total funding to $234 million.Funding overview:<ul class=""><li class="">Series D Round Size: $114 million</li><li class="">New Investors: Moore Strategic Ventures, Coreline Ventures, HR Tech Fund LLC*, Woven Capital, and Salesforce Ventures</li><li class="">Existing Investors: Atomico, Globis Capital Partners, JPS Growth Investment Limited Partnership**</li></ul> <h2 class="">Fueling what's next for manufacturing in the AI era</h2>CADDi is headquartered in Chicago and Tokyo, and is led by Yushiro Kato, co-founder and CEO. In an essay recently published on CADDi's corporate website, titled <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcaddi.com%2Fen-us%2Fessay%2F2609&amp;esheet=54605181&amp;newsitemid=20260916456307&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=%26quot%3BMaterialization+%26%238212%3B+Making+Things+in+the+Age+of+AI%2C%26quot%3B&amp;index=2&amp;md5=874def2b87a7110e73555a53903d68ac" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 14px;" class="">"Materialization — Making Things in the Age of AI,"</a> Kato wrote, "Over thirty years we made the world of bits more than a hundred times faster. The world of atoms moved at roughly the same speed in most industries. In the AI era, the gap widens further. Even if AI makes thinking ten thousand times faster and produces ten thousand times the theory, the upside from AI gets diluted in the physical world if it still takes four years to mass-produce cars. Solving physical limits means solving this asymmetry."Kato believes the key lies in transitioning manufacturing from sequential execution to parallel processing. In a world where processes that were once executed step-by-step now run simultaneously, a common platform that enables humans and AI across departments to draw on the same information and context becomes indispensable. However, manufacturing data contains highly complex semantics, relationships, and constraints that general-purpose AI cannot adequately address. Domain-specific vertical AI capable of mapping data semantics is essential.The funds raised will be allocated across four areas:<ul class=""><li class="">Proprietary AI and technology development</li><li class="">Expansion of the Manufacturing AI Data Platform</li><li class="">Enhancement of global business operations centered on North America</li><li class="">Investment in talent acquisition and development</li></ul>"AI only delivers where a data layer and a semantic layer already exist. In manufacturing that layer is buried in information fragmented across departments and in records that were never digitized at all, which is why horizontal tooling never reaches it," said Ken Hara, partner at Coreline Ventures. "CADDi has spent four years building it, with some of the most demanding manufacturers in the world as its first customers. Knowledge that lived only in individual experience is becoming an asset the organization, and in time the industry, can use.""Eighteen months ago, we backed CADDi because we believed they had the potential to build one of the defining AI companies in manufacturing. Since then, that conviction has only grown," said Luca Eisenstecken, Partner at Atomico. "CADDi is evolving from solving individual manufacturing workflows to building the intelligence layer for the entire manufacturing lifecycle. Its new AI-native data platform connects engineering, procurement, production and quality through a shared semantic data foundation, giving AI agents the context to reason across decades of fragmented manufacturing knowledge. The ambition is enormous, the execution has been exceptional and we're thrilled to deepen our partnership with Yushiro, Aki and the team for the decade ahead." <h2 class="">CADDi previews next-generation platform technology</h2>Kato emphasized, "As artificial intelligence pushes past the boundaries of intelligence, the gap between what is conceptualized and what is implemented in the physical world widens. We see this as a broader human challenge that goes well beyond manufacturing: 'physical limits.'"CADDi announced the next-generation Manufacturing AI Data Platform in Japan in August 2026 to serve as this foundational platform, initiating the global products release. "At our CADDi Unleash 2026 event, we presented a renewed vision: to overcome physical limits and accelerate physical innovation tenfold. That is our priority from here on, and this commitment is what guided both our recent product rebrand and the development of new products we are bringing to our U.S. customers," said Kato.Designed as a manufacturing operating system, <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcaddi.com%2Fen-us%2Fplatform%2F%3Fref%3DUS-PR-2026-Q4-CADDi-Series-D-Funding-NPI&amp;esheet=54605181&amp;newsitemid=20260916456307&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=CADDi&amp;index=3&amp;md5=12263102916e9c3d503c7dc29bf7aa25" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 14px;" class="">CADDi</a> provides a semantic structure to fragmented data, enabling human and AI workflows to run on shared data without manual handoffs. The new product, CADDi Explorer, is a manufacturing discovery engine and the next-generation version of CADDi Drawer. CADDi Agent is a new AI agent that analyzes manufacturing data, makes decisions, and takes action within each company's operating context. CADDi will also offer six domain-specific Workflow Products spanning the manufacturing value chain, enhancing decision-making and execution to drive business-critical impact.The platform's official U.S. launch signals CADDi's full-scale expansion into the United States, the world's second-largest manufacturing market. <h2 class="">About CADDi</h2>CADDi is a global manufacturing technology company driven by the vision to accelerate physical innovation tenfold. Headquartered in Chicago and Tokyo, the company was founded in 2017 by industry veterans Yushiro Kato and Aki Kobashi, formerly of McKinsey and Apple, respectively. CADDi currently serves manufacturing businesses in more than 20 countries, including many of the largest publicly traded companies in Japan and the United States. Total funding stands at $234 million, valuing the company at $1.2 billion.CADDi's Manufacturing AI Data Platform analyzes, structures, contextualizes, and connects data that has historically been fragmented across the manufacturing value chain. With a proprietary AI model, CADDi offers domain-specific Workflow Products spanning the manufacturing value chain, enhancing decision-making and execution to drive business-critical impact. To learn more, visit <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcaddi.com%2Fen-us%2Fcompany%2F%3Fref%3DUS-PR-2026-Q4-CADDi-Series-D-Funding-NPI&amp;esheet=54605181&amp;newsitemid=20260916456307&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=caddi.com&amp;index=4&amp;md5=72a843845a17cc0cbae8d42660e45dfb" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 14px;" class="">caddi.com</a>. View digital copy of this release, including a full list of investor comments on CADDi's news page: <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcaddi.com%2Fen-us%2Fnews%2Fannouncements%2Fcaddi-seriesd-unicorn-status%2F%3Fref%3DUS-PR-2026-Q4-CADDi-Series-D-Funding-NPI&amp;esheet=54605181&amp;newsitemid=20260916456307&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=caddi.com%2Fen-us%2Fnews&amp;index=5&amp;md5=fb61256329744c56b0f7041552b25cdb" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">caddi.com/en-us/news</a>*HR Tech Fund LLC is a corporate venture capital entity under Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd.**JPS Growth Investment Limited Partnership and JPS Growth II Investment Limited Partnership, managed by a subsidiary of Japan Post Bank Asset Management Co., Ltd.View source version on businesswire.com: <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260916456307/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 14px;" class="">https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260916456307/en/</a> <h3 class="">Contacts</h3><h4 class="">Media Contact</h4>Milbien MedinaSenior Manager, Brand Marketing at CADDi<a href="mailto:milbien_medina@caddi.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="font-size: 14px;" class="">milbien_medina@caddi.com</a>

Materialization — Making Things in the Age of AI by Yushiro Kato

<h5 class="">Originally featured in <a href="https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/caddi-raises-114m-series-d/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">The SaaS News</a></h5> CADDi Raises $114M Series D at $1.2B Valuation CADDi, a manufacturing AI startup with dual headquarters in Tokyo and Chicago, has raised $114 million in a Series D funding round, bringing the company to a $1.2 billion valuation. The latest capital infusion increases the company's total funding to $234 million. <h2 class="">Investors</h2>The funding round included eight new and existing investors. Participants include Moore Strategic Ventures, Coreline Ventures, Woven Capital, HR Tech Fund, Atomico, Globis Capital Partners, and JPS Growth funds. <h2 class="">CADDi Use of Funds</h2>CADDi plans to use the new funding to expand its product lineup, specifically by building AI models that can interpret manufacturing-specific data such as 3D CAD files and 2D drawings. The company also intends to use the capital to support its global expansion efforts, with a primary focus on the North American market, as well as to increase its headcount. <h2 class="">About CADDi</h2>Founded in 2017 by Yushiro Kato, CADDi provides an AI-powered data platform designed to help manufacturing companies organize and utilize engineering and production data. The company's platform integrates data from diverse systems, including CAD files and enterprise resource planning software, to assist manufacturers in standardizing parts, performing quality impact assessments, and capturing the institutional knowledge of experienced engineers. <h2 class="">Funding Details</h2>Company Website: <a href="https://corp.caddi.jp/?ref=thesaasnews.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 18px;" class="">https://corp.caddi.jp</a>Company: CADDiRaised: $114MRound: Series DFunding Date: September 2026Additional Investors: Moore Strategic Ventures, Coreline Ventures, Woven Capital, HR Tech Fund, Atomico, Globis Capital Partners, JPS Growth fundsCompany Website: <a href="https://corp.caddi.jp/?ref=thesaasnews.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 18px;" class="">https://corp.caddi.jp</a>Software Category: Manufacturing AISource: <a href="https://fortune.com/2026/09/15/caddi-manufacturing-startup-valuation-funding-round-series-d-exclusive/?ref=thesaasnews.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 18px;" class="">https://fortune.com/2026/09/15/caddi-manufacturing-startup-valuation-funding-round-series-d-exclusive/</a>

CADDi Raises $114M Series D

<h5 class="">Originally featured on <a href="https://www.citybiz.co/article/904290/caddi-raises-114-million-series-d-at-1-2-billion-valuation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">citybiz.co</a></h5> Manufacturing companies generate large volumes of engineering, procurement, production and quality data, but much of that information remains fragmented across departments, legacy systems and undigitized records. <a href="https://caddi.com/en-us/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">CADDi</a> has raised $114 million in Series D funding to expand an AI data platform designed to connect that information and make it usable across manufacturing operations.The financing values Chicago- and Tokyo-based CADDi at $1.2 billion and brings its total funding to $234 million. Eight new and existing investors participated in the round.New investors include Moore Strategic Ventures, Coreline Ventures, HR Tech Fund, Woven Capital and Salesforce Ventures. Existing backers Atomico, Globis Capital Partners and JPS Growth Investment Limited Partnership also participated.CADDi plans to invest the capital in proprietary AI and technology development, expansion of its Manufacturing AI Data Platform, global business operations centered on North America, and hiring and employee development.Founded in 2017 by CEO Yushiro Kato and Aki Kobashi, CADDi initially focused on individual manufacturing workflows but is expanding toward a shared data and intelligence layer spanning the manufacturing lifecycle.The company’s platform analyzes, structures and connects information that would otherwise sit separately across engineering, sourcing, production and quality functions. CADDi’s approach is based on creating a semantic layer that preserves the relationships and context within manufacturing data so both employees and AI applications can work from the same underlying information.That addresses a practical limitation in applying general-purpose AI to industrial operations. Manufacturing records can include engineering drawings, specifications, procurement history, production information and quality data with technical relationships that are difficult to interpret without industry-specific context.“AI only delivers where a data layer and a semantic layer already exist,” Coreline Ventures partner Ken Hara said. He said CADDi has spent four years developing that foundation with manufacturing customers, turning information previously concentrated in individual experience into data that can be used more broadly across an organization.CADDi introduced its next-generation Manufacturing AI Data Platform in Japan in August 2026 and is now moving into a global product rollout, including a full-scale expansion in the United States.The platform includes CADDi Explorer, a manufacturing discovery engine that succeeds the company’s CADDi Drawer product. Explorer is designed to help users find and work with manufacturing information distributed across an organization.CADDi is also introducing CADDi Agent, an AI agent that can analyze manufacturing data, make decisions and take actions using the operating context of an individual company. Six domain-specific Workflow Products are planned across different parts of the manufacturing value chain.The broader objective is to reduce manual handoffs between functions by allowing workflows to operate against a common data foundation. CADDi sees that infrastructure as increasingly important as manufacturers explore AI agents capable of performing work rather than simply retrieving or summarizing information.Atomico partner Luca Eisenstecken said CADDi is moving from addressing individual workflows toward providing an intelligence layer across the manufacturing lifecycle. Atomico first invested in the company approximately 18 months ago and returned for the Series D.CADDi’s U.S. rollout represents a significant part of the expansion strategy supported by the new financing. The company currently serves manufacturers in more than 20 countries, including large publicly traded companies in Japan and the United States.Kato has framed the company’s longer-term challenge around narrowing the gap between faster digital processes and the comparatively slower physical processes required to manufacture products. His strategy calls for moving more manufacturing activities from sequential workflows toward processes that can operate in parallel, supported by shared data and context.CADDi’s $114 million Series D gives the company additional capital to pursue that strategy as manufacturers increase their use of AI across engineering and factory operations. Its expansion will center on building the data infrastructure, domain-specific software and AI agents needed to connect decisions across the manufacturing lifecycle while accelerating its commercial presence in North America.

CADDi Raises $114 Million Series D at $1.2 Billion Valuation

CADDi Raises $114 Million To Fix Manufacturing’s Biggest Bottleneck With AI

Originally featured on <a href="https://www.advancedmanufacturing.org/news-desk/press-releases/caddi-raises-funds-in-series-d-at-1-2-billion-valuation/article_23f67d13-00c6-40c0-a97d-6148f8182314.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">advancedmanufacturing.org</a> <a href="https://caddi.com/en-us/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">CADDi</a>, the global technology company that develops the CADDi Manufacturing AI Data Platform, today announced that it has entered into definitive agreements for $114 million at a $1.2 billion valuation in Series D funding, with eight new and existing investors participating, including Moore Strategic Ventures and Coreline Ventures. This funding brings CADDi's total funding to $234 million.Funding overview:<ul class=""><li class="">Series D Round Size: $114 million</li><li class="">New Investors: Moore Strategic Ventures, Coreline Ventures, HR Tech Fund LLC, Woven Capital, and Salesforce Ventures</li><li class="">Existing Investors: Atomico, Globis Capital Partners, JPS Growth Investment Limited Partnership</li></ul> <h2 class="">Fueling What’s Next for Manufacturing in the AI Era</h2>CADDi is headquartered in Chicago and Tokyo, and is led by Yushiro Kato, co-founder and CEO. In an essay recently published on CADDi's corporate website, titled "<a href="https://caddi.com/en-us/essay/2609/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">Materialization — Making Things in the Age of AI</a>," Kato wrote, "Over thirty years we made the world of bits more than a hundred times faster. The world of atoms moved at roughly the same speed in most industries. In the AI era, the gap widens further. Even if AI makes thinking ten thousand times faster and produces ten thousand times the theory, the upside from AI gets diluted in the physical world if it still takes four years to mass-produce cars. Solving physical limits means solving this asymmetry." Kato believes the key lies in transitioning manufacturing from sequential execution to parallel processing. In a world where processes that were once executed step-by-step now run simultaneously, a common platform that enables humans and AI across departments to draw on the same information and context becomes indispensable. However, manufacturing data contains highly complex semantics, relationships, and constraints that general-purpose AI cannot adequately address. Domain-specific vertical AI capable of mapping data semantics is essential.The funds raised will be allocated across four areas:<ul class=""><li class="">Proprietary AI and technology development</li><li class="">Expansion of the Manufacturing AI Data Platform</li><li class="">Enhancement of global business operations centered on North America</li><li class="">Investment in talent acquisition and development</li></ul>"AI only delivers where a data layer and a semantic layer already exist. In manufacturing that layer is buried in information fragmented across departments and in records that were never digitized at all, which is why horizontal tooling never reaches it,” said Ken Hara, partner at Coreline Ventures. “CADDi has spent four years building it, with some of the most demanding manufacturers in the world as its first customers. Knowledge that lived only in individual experience is becoming an asset the organization, and in time the industry, can use.”“Eighteen months ago, we backed CADDi because we believed they had the potential to build one of the defining AI companies in manufacturing. Since then, that conviction has only grown,” said Luca Eisenstecken, Partner at Atomico. “CADDi is evolving from solving individual manufacturing workflows to building the intelligence layer for the entire manufacturing lifecycle. Its new AI-native data platform connects engineering, procurement, production and quality through a shared semantic data foundation, giving AI agents the context to reason across decades of fragmented manufacturing knowledge. The ambition is enormous, the execution has been exceptional and we’re thrilled to deepen our partnership with Yushiro, Aki and the team for the decade ahead.” <h2 class="">CADDi Previews Next-generation Platform Technology</h2>Kato emphasized, “As artificial intelligence pushes past the boundaries of intelligence, the gap between what is conceptualized and what is implemented in the physical world widens. We see this as a broader human challenge that goes well beyond manufacturing: ‘physical limits.’" CADDi announced the next-generation Manufacturing AI Data Platform in Japan in August 2026 to serve as this foundational platform, initiating the global products release.“At our CADDi Unleash 2026 event, we presented a renewed vision: to overcome physical limits and accelerate physical innovation tenfold. That is our priority from here on, and this commitment is what guided both our recent product rebrand and the development of new products we are bringing to our U.S. customers,” said Kato.Designed as a manufacturing operating system, <a href="https://caddi.com/en-us/platform/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">CADDi</a> provides a semantic structure to fragmented data, enabling human and AI workflows to run on shared data without manual handoffs. The new product, CADDi Explorer, is a manufacturing discovery engine and the next-generation version of CADDi Drawer.CADDi Agent is a new AI agent that analyzes manufacturing data, makes decisions, and takes action within each company's operating context. CADDi will also offer six domain-specific Workflow Products spanning the manufacturing value chain, enhancing decision-making and execution to drive business-critical impact.The platform's official U.S. launch signals CADDi's full-scale expansion into the United States, the world's second-largest manufacturing market.

CADDi Raises Funds in Series D at $1.2 Billion Valuation

<h5 class="">Originally featured on <a href="https://www.siliconreport.com/caddi-raises-114-million-at-1-2-billion-valuation" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">siliconreport.com</a></h5> Tokyo- and Chicago-based CADDi has raised $114 million in a Series D funding round that values the manufacturing software startup at $1.2 billion, Fortune reported.The valuation is more than double the $470 million CADDi reported in March 2025 and lifts total capital raised to $234 million. Eight new and existing investors joined the round, including Moore Strategic Ventures, Coreline Ventures, Toyota’s Woven Capital, Atomico, and Globis Capital Partners. <h2 class="">Domain models and expansion</h2>CADDi began by using machine learning to identify duplicate parts and defect rates from technical drawings. The company has since expanded into an engineering data platform that structures CAD files, enterprise resource planning data, and human resources records for automated workflows.The startup relies on proprietary models for drawings and general large language models for text and spreadsheets. “I’ve never seen anybody who uses LLMs to do design reviews because it doesn’t understand drawings or CAD,” cofounder and chief executive Yushiro Kato said.Kato said the capital will fund North American expansion, model development, and hiring across technical teams. The company has grown to roughly 900 employees, deploying forward engineers and more than 100 customer success specialists to assist industrial clients with change management. Why it matters: CADDi will use the new financing to expand specialized engineering models and deployment teams, helping industrial customers lower direct material costs and compress development cycles against overseas rivals.

CADDi raises $114 million at $1.2 billion valuation

CADDi raises $114M at $1.2B valuation for automated manufacturing

<h5 class="">Originally featured on <a href="https://fortune.com/2026/09/15/caddi-manufacturing-startup-valuation-funding-round-series-d-exclusive/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 16px;" class="">fortune.com</a></h5> CADDi, a startup that sells AI software to help manufacturers organize and use their engineering and production data, has raised $114 million in a new funding round that values the company at $1.2 billion.Eight new and existing investors took part in the investment, which is the company’s Series D funding round, the Tokyo- and Chicago-based company said.Among them are Moore Strategic Ventures, Coreline Ventures, Toyota’s growth-stage fund Woven Capital, and HR Tech Fund, the corporate venture arm of Japan’s Recruit Holdings. One new investor was not identified. Existing backers Atomico, Globis Capital Partners, and the JPS Growth funds, managed by a Japan Post Bank subsidiary, also took part in the funding.The valuation is more than double the $470 million CADDi reported in March 2025. The new round brings CADDi’s total funding to $234 million, the company said.Founded in 2017, CADDi’s initial product, called CADDi Drawer, was designed to address a common problem in manufacturing firms: they buy too many similar parts from different suppliers. The AI-powered product ingested technical drawings and then searched a customer’s own databases for similar or identical parts the customer had previously purchased or already has in inventory. The software also provided information on the defect rate of those parts, allowing the customer to decide if they wished to use existing stock, repurchase the item from an existing supplier, or try a new supplier.In the past two years, the company has broadened its product suite, creating what it calls an “AI data platform for manufacturing.” The platform can integrate different data types from across multiple systems that customers use—from CAD files to enterprise resource planning software to HR systems—and structure it for use by 9/15/26, both people and AI agents. CADDi Drawer has been renamed CADDi Explorer and is now joined by CADDi Agent, an AI agent designed to help manufacturing companies make decisions about standardizing parts and perform quality impact assessments, which analyze how a given design change will impact performance and safety.CADDi has also launched six “workflow” products aimed at specific tasks, designed in part to capture the tacit knowledge of experienced engineers and workers. For instance, CADDi Design Review flags potential errors in new drawings and CAD models based on past problems with similar parts.Yushiro Kato, CADDi’s cofounder and CEO, tells Fortune that CADDi uses its own proprietary AI model to analyze product data like drawings and CAD files, and general-purpose large language models for documents and spreadsheets. “I’ve never seen anybody who uses LLMs to do design reviews because it doesn’t understand drawings or CAD,” he said.More than 80% of the knowledge about manufacturing work processes, and often why a company chose a particular supplier or designed a part in a particular way, is never recorded anywhere, Kato said. Instead, it exists in the heads of experienced employees. CADDi’s AI platform is designed to capture and codify that knowledge.Kato declined to disclose revenue or customer numbers, but said sales are more than doubling year over year and that the company now has customers in 22 countries, although the U.S. is a core focus. In Japan, he said, more than half of the country’s 100 largest manufacturers use CADDi. Meanwhile, CADDi’s headcount has grown to about 900 staffers, up from 600 in early 2025.He said the money from CADDi’s latest fundraise will go toward expanding its product lineup, building AI models that understand manufacturing-specific data such as 3D CAD files and 2D drawings, global expansion centered on North America, and hiring.CADDi tends to market its products based on measurable returns to its customers, such as lower direct material costs or shorter engineering lead times—critical, he said, for automakers and other manufacturing firms competing with Chinese rivals.The biggest obstacle to adoption, Kato said, is change management. Getting workers to alter how they have traditionally done things takes hands-on help, which is why CADDi employs more than 100 customer success staff, outnumbering its salespeople. Like many AI companies, it’s started hiring “forward deployed engineers” to help customers use AI effectively. “The goal is to change the organization and create a business impact,” Kato said.Kato frames CADDi’s ambitions around what he calls “the physical bottleneck.” AI capabilities are compounding, he said, yet little in the physical world has changed since ChatGPT debuted. Today, AI can build a e-commerce marketplace website in hours. Developing a new car, by contrast, still takes about four years from planning to delivery. “Even if AI makes thinking ten thousand times faster and produces ten thousand times the theory, the upside from AI gets diluted in the physical world if it still takes four years to mass-produce cars,” Kato wrote in a recent essay on CADDi’s website.CADDi’s stated goal is to accelerate physical innovation tenfold by 2035—which, for a car, would mean four to five months from planning to delivery. Automakers typically go through about 20 design review cycles for a single product, Kato said, often because problems surface only at the prototype stage. CADDi wants to run more of those steps in parallel and catch problems earlier by pooling the know-how of veteran engineers into what Kato described as a kind of “superhuman” veteran.

Exclusive: Manufacturing AI startup CADDi valued at $1.2 billion following $114 million Series D funding round

<h5 class="">Originally featured on <a href="https://www.wsj.com/pro/private-equity/coreline-salesforce-ventures-back-manufacturing-ai-company-caddi-ec3b9427" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">wsj.com</a></h5> Investors including Coreline Ventures and Moore Strategic Ventures have committed $114 million in growth financing to support CADDi, a developer of artificial-intelligence-powered systems that help manufacturers operate more efficiently, bringing its valuation to $1.2 billion.Salesforce Ventures, the venture-capital unit of enterprise-software provider Salesforce, also participated in the growth financing alongside other investors such as Woven Capital, an investment arm of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor. Some existing backers also joined the investment round.The Chicago-based company with roots in Japan provides manufacturers with AI tools that help speed up activities such as searches for product design drawings and combining data stored in different systems. More efficient data handling can free up employee time to do more valuable work and reduce fluctuations in the price that procurement teams pay for parts used across different product lines, according to case studies presented on CADDi’s website.The company’s customers include Japanese manufacturers such as machinery maker Yanmar, transportation company Subaru and units of the industrial conglomerates that produce Kawasaki motorcycles and Mitsubishi cars. CADDi also counts Kiel, Wis.-based power and construction equipment manufacturer Amerequip and Japanese fastener supplier YKK as clients, the website shows.Leaders of CAADi plan to use the fresh capital partly to bolster a push into North America. The company’s aim to expand outside Japan helped lead Coreline to back the business, said Kenichiro Hara, a co-founder and managing partner at the investment firm. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm last year spun out of DCM Ventures, which had made several investments in CAADi starting about eight years ago.“Manufacturing is one of the largest markets in the world,” Hara said, adding that it also is different from other sectors. “We understand the pain points of manufacturing and we saw the potential.”Adoption of AI has expanded rapidly in many industries, such as legal, financial services and healthcare. But in manufacturing operations, information is typically scattered across various documents kept in isolated systems, often in different formats, making it difficult for AI to use the data.Also, traditional manufacturing software has concentrated on the recording of information, rather than the use of it, creating opportunities for providers of AI systems that can extract data from things like product drawings and make it more useful for decision-making, according to industry analysts.For now, AI tools in the manufacturing sector are mostly augmenting rather than replacing so-called enterprise resource planning applications and other traditional systems that companies often take years to set up, the analysts say.“Many companies have data-storage products for drawings, which is kind of a drop box that you can search by the file names but you cannot search by what is actually written on the document,” Hara said. “What CADDi is doing is connecting that structured data set to the unstructured data set which is in the drawings.”He compared CADDi’s manufacturing-focused products to those Palantir Technologies provides to large businesses and government agencies to help them analyze vast collections of complex data. Both companies use a socalled semantic or ontological approach to translate raw data into more useful descriptions. For example, CADDi’s systems enable searching for product parts across drawings using their shapes and other features rather than numbers or letters.The main hurdle facing CADDi is to maximize its expansion potential, Hara said. That potential is what drove Coreline, which typically backs earlystage startups, to participate in the series D investment, he added. The business has experienced fast growth as measured by typical industry metrics such as annual contract value per user and revenue retention from existing customers, Hara said.“The reason why we invested in CADDi is that we believe this company has the growth potential” of a younger startup, Hara said. “And it’s the same type of risk.”

Coreline, Salesforce Ventures Back Manufacturing AI Company CADDi

<h5 class="">Originally featured on <a href="https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/advances-ai-erp-systems-manufacturing-automation/829448/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">manufacturingdive.net</a></h5> Enterprise resource planning systems, which help integrate and manage distinct business operations in one piece of software, started becoming popular in the late 1990s. Today, their role is still evolving as artificial intelligence gains traction.A recent <a href="http://us.caddi.com/resources/whitepaper/2026-manufacturing-outlook-study" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">whitepaper from manufacturing data platform Caddi</a> found that 69% of surveyed organizations planned to invest in physical assets. Only 33% planned investments in operational software, such as ERPs and manufacturing execution systems MES and ERP, which was 60% less than last year.Manufacturers currently seem to be prioritizing investments that have an immediate, measurable effect on factory output. This creates a significant problem when it comes to integration with AI, experts said.“AI raises the bar on the data foundation rather than replacing the ERP completely,” said Srinivas Chippagiri, senior member of technical staff at Tableau, a Salesforce company. “Manufacturers with clean, well-integrated ERP data can layer AI on top and get real leverage, while those with fragmented data across aging systems mostly get confident wrong answers faster.”Cache Merrill, founder and chief technology officer of Zibtek, agreed. Zibtek works with manufacturing companies on ERP modernization, custom software and AI initiatives. He said the company’s customers aren’t choosing between ERP and AI. Instead, they are starting to use AI around the ERP systems they already depend on.“There’s a lot of investment in older systems and data, so it can be difficult to justify replacing everything just to get access to newer AI features,” he said. “In many cases, it makes more sense to modernize the parts of the ERP that are creating problems, improve the way data moves between systems, and then introduce AI or automation where there is a clear business case.”The best use case, according to Merrill, is when AI agents can handle the work that normally requires someone to move between several systems or reports.For example, to accomplish a simple task like inventory analysis, someone would have to look at current stock, recent orders, purchasing information, supplier data and expected demand before deciding what needs attention. Merrill said an agent could pull that information together, identify patterns and prepare the next step instead of someone doing all of that manually.“The manufacturers that get the most from this will be the ones that work on both sides of the problem: modernizing the ERP and data where it needs attention, while using AI and automation to remove unnecessary manual work around it,” Merrill said.But all of this can be difficult to implement, as the technology that these manufacturing companies are working with is simply not designed for such advanced processes.“I believe legacy ERP is the single biggest thing holding manufacturers back from significant efficiency gains with AI,” Remi Beges, CTO and co-founder of Bonx, an AI-native manufacturing ERP company, said via email. “Most manufacturing companies today are still using a legacy ERP that is not built at its core for AI.”Beges said these systems were designed around one goal: to record transactions reliably. In other words, they were designed as systems of record, not systems that could take action.But Beges said that today, in theory, AI could not only identify which systems are affected by a late shipment, but also draft and send emails to customers. For example, it could tell them their order will be delayed and plan accordingly, notifying workers of updated processes and schedules.However, he said that this is nearly impossible on a system designed only to record transactions. <h3 class="">Specialized AI ERP programs and potential pitfalls</h3>Some companies like Microsoft are launching specialized programs like Dynamics 365, which is an agentic ERP system for manufacturing, connecting demand, supply, production, fulfillment and cost data so AI agents can execute decisions rather than merely answer questions and generate recommendations.Noting this development, Beges cautioned against handing over tasks to AI completely, as it could take undesirable actions without a human in the loop.“A system taking actions autonomously is not dangerous in and of itself, and there might be situations where this is perfectly appropriate,” Beges said.For example, if the ERP sees that a material will be out of stock for an upcoming run based on planned usage, the company might want the system to determine which supplier would be best to fill the order and draft a purchase order for the buyer to review. However, it might not want that PO to be sent without any human checks.“The key is defining those guardrails upfront (agreeing on how you do and don’t want the system to act) as well as ensuring that the system is smart enough to highlight any exceptions or outliers proactively,” Beges said.Despite the overall industry’s cautious approach amidst the risks and implementation challenges, some manufacturers have made major strides in this sector.Clorox announced a transition to a new ERP system in 2025, going from manual spreadsheets to a “fairly automated” process. The shift is part of their $500 million digitization plan, which began in 2021.Manufacturing giants like Nestlé have also announced the implementation of an AI-focused ERP systems. The company shifted its entire ERP process from data centers to cloud in 2022.Schreiber Foods recently announced a partnership with Ascendion to modernize its ERP systems by deploying AI agents. The changes will be introduced across more than 40 locations on five continents.Still, experts caution these shifts should be done carefully.“The biggest pitfall is trusting probabilistic output in a system people treat as authoritative,” Chippagiri said. “It carries risks like getting wrong answers built on stale or inconsistent data, which are worse than no answer because people act on them.”It also creates accountability gaps, he said. “When an AI-driven action turns out wrong, who owns it?”

How advances in AI are affecting manufacturing ERP systems

CADDi leverages AI to digitize drawings and procurement data, making manufacturing insights searchable by shape, text, dimensions and part names.