Duro Takes Another Step In Reshaping Hardware Engineering
Announces $7.5M in funding – enhancing Duro PLM for hardware teams across space, automation, and manufacturing industries.
Los Angeles, May 1st, 2024—Duro, a leading Cloud-native PLM platform in hardware engineering, today announced $7.5 million in seed funding led by New York City’s Primary Ventures.
Duro’s latest round of funding includes participation from past investors Bonfire Ventures and Riot Ventures. The announcement coincides with Jon Stevenson, founder of GrabCAD, joining Duro’s Board of Directors.
“Duro is the first platform we’ve seen that recognizes the changes in how modern, agile hardware teams work. By bringing workflow principles from the best of agile software design while integrating the design process with the realities of supply chain constraints, Duro enables more collaboration, real-time information flow, and rapid design work for hardware teams. We think they are redefining product lifecycle management in the process.”
— Brad Svrluga, Co-Founder and General Partner, Primary Venture Partners
How Duro is Modernizing Hardware Development
Founded by Michael Corr and Kellan O’Connor, Duro’s out-of-the-box PLM revolutionizes how hardware teams operate. Duro offers a plug-and-play tech stack solution that simplifies complex product data management by addressing common inefficiencies in BOM management, design changes, and procurement.
Duro Co-Founders – Kellan O’Connor & Michael Corr
The platform leverages pre-built CAD, ERP, and MES integrations to streamline and automate product lifecycle management. Using agile workflows, hardware teams can develop products three times faster and reduce supply chain costs by 25%.
“Duro exists to reduce the cost of failure, allowing engineers to embrace risks and boost innovation. As a catalyst for growth in a ripe hardware industry, our vision to host the bill of materials for every hardware product globally will empower teams to innovate and accelerate market entry like never before.”
— Michael Corr, Co-Founder & CEO of Duro
Software Must Match Hardware Advances
Duro’s initiative comes at a crucial time. The last few years have highlighted considerable inefficiencies in physical product innovation, particularly in manufacturing, making up $15 trillion of the global $25 trillion supply chain market.
Despite rapid industry advancements, many software for hardware tools still fall short. Duro addresses these gaps with flexible, easy-to-use software that integrates seamlessly with existing tech stacks, ensuring quick deployment and operation.
Duro’s PLM Driving Success
Having helped design the Space X Falcon 9 rocket, O’Connor’s influence is evident. With aerospace making up around 25% of the PLM market, it’s no surprise that nearly half of Duro’s 90+ customers are from the space tech industry.
A shining example is Duro client Gilmour Space, which recently raised $36M and is set to launch its three-stage ‘Eris’ rocket in May 2024—the first Australian-built rocket to enter orbit.
“Without being able to define a baseline or manage changes to our products in Duro, we wouldn’t have the confidence in our design to be able to seek launch permission.”
– Senior Launch Vehicle Engineer, Gilmour Space.
How Funding Will Fuel Growth and Transformation
Generative AI and Product Innovation
The new capital will grow Duro’s R&D team, increasing product development capacity to deliver new features that empower customers to build a best-in-class hardware tech stack. This includes developing Gen-AI extensions within Duro PLM to enhance BOM (bill of materials) management and supply chain optimization.
New Integrations and Partnerships
There’s a vibrant market of new software for hardware tools in which Duro is establishing itself as the anchor in the tech stack, centralizing customers’ bill of materials. Amid rapid tool innovation, Duro is constantly finding new integrations and strategic partnerships to expand the tech stack economy.
Investments in Duro’s API and new integrations will enable quick setup and provide access to consistent, accurate product data for everyone from design engineers to manufacturers across the development lifecycle, significantly reducing hardware product development overhead.
What’s Next for Duro?
Manufacturing companies want to abandon dated legacy tools and adopt cloud-native agile workflows. Duro is ready to lead this industry shift, targeting further expansion into established enterprise hardware sectors, notably space and industrial technology.
After extending its team presence beyond its LA headquarters into New York City and Europe, Duro’s highly integrated and growing PLM platform – the first and only PLM on Google Marketplace, is firmly on the path to changing how hardware teams manage design and manufacturing.
