GrabCAD, a specialist in open-source CAD software, netted $ 4.2 million in new funding from its existing VC backers. Plus, David Skok, general partner with one of those backers, Matrix Partners, joined GrabCAD’s board. The news was outlined in a blog post Thursday by GrabCAD founder Hardi Meybaum. Skok has some CAD cred: he is on the board of Dassault Systemes’ SolidWorks, a maker of 3-D CAD (or computer-aided design) software. Engineers use this kind of software to design products on screen.
This cash influx shows that investors believe that the open source CAD model has legs. Other open-source CAD entries include SourceForge’s FreeCAD project, and Cademia. And CAD is starting to come to the cloud as well. Autodesk, the CAD market leader, fields a cloud-based CAD effort called AutoCAD WS.
All of the investors this time out also participated in an earlier June 2011 funding round of $ 1.1 million. Other GrabCAD investors include Atlas Venture; NextView Ventures; John McEleney, former CEO of SolidWorks; Jon Stevenson, a former executive with PTC; and Andy Payne who co-founded Open Market. GrabCAD was one of 12 Boston-area TechStars last year.
The new funding round, will be used to staff up the Cambridge, Mass.-based company which has job listings posted for a UX/UI engineer, a software architect, and a senior software engineer, according to the GrabCAD web site.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user 401K
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