Autodesk announces $100 mln fund for startups “making things”

Las Vegas, Dec. 2, 2015: Autodesk, Inc. today announced a $100 million investment fund and Forge, an initiative to accelerate a Cloud connected ecosystem in support of the future of making things.

The new fund, said the company, was part of three major components that included a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering, a developer program, all geared toward advancing the next wave of innovative technologies that would transform how products were designed, made and used.

AutoDesk fund“The way we design, make and use products is rapidly changing. New technologies are disrupting every aspect of the product lifecycle,” said Amar Hanspal, Senior Vice President, Products at Autodesk. “Autodesk is launching Forge to help developers build new businesses in the changing manufacturing landscape. We are inviting innovators to take advantage of Autodesk’s cloud platform to build services that turn today’s disconnected technologies into highly connected, personalized experiences.”

The Forge Platform is a set of Cloud services that span early stage design, engineering, visualisation, collaboration, production and operations. Open application programming interfaces (APIs) and software development kits (SDKs) will enable small and large software developers alike to build intuitive cloud powered apps and services.

The Forge Developer Program is expected to bring together the Cloud developer community, provide ongoing training, resources and support, and host an inaugural Forge Developer Conference during the week of June 13, 2016.

Use of Investment Fund

The Forge Fund will advance the developer ecosystem by investing up to $100 million over the next several years in emerging companies that are working to deliver innovative solutions and services on or connected to the Forge Platform. In addition to financial support, Autodesk will also provide business and technical support to startups that are contributing value to the future of making things.

Incidentally, just a couple of days ago, Autodesk had announced ‘Autodesk SeeControl’, a platform powering the Internet of Things that will allow customers to capture, analyse and use data from remote products. Acquired by Autodesk in September 2015, the new SeeControl offering will help manufacturers gain competitive advantage by optimizing their existing products and capturing the intelligence required to offer their customers innovative new services.

Image Credit: Autodesk

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