CADDi
11 known investors
Manufacturing technology company; MGP invested in its Series C extension round (2025).
Also known as CADDi Co Ltd · CADDi Inc. · キャディ株式会社
Founders & leadership
Investors · 11
Also in the syndicate · 3
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$127M disclosed across 2 of 7 rounds · 2018–2025
- $38MSeries C ExtensionMar 2025 · 3 sources
Atomico, DCM Ventures, Global Brain, Globis Capital Partners, Minerva Growth, Minerva Growth Partners, WiL (World Innovation Lab)
Source ↗ - $89MSeries CJul 2023 · 2 sources
DCM Ventures, Global Brain, Globis Capital Partners, JAFCO, Minerva Growth Partners, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, World Innovation Lab
Source ↗
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Valuation · disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed — follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026CADDi (Japanese entity: キャディ株式会社) develops an AI data platform for manufacturing companies that consolidates fragmented engineering and supply chain data, beginning with legacy technical drawings. Its software ingests drawings and enables similarity and keyword search across a manufacturer's own historical data, so engineering, procurement and sales teams can find identical or comparable parts, identify pricing inconsistencies, avoid component duplication, locate alternative suppliers and shorten sourcing cycles. The company states a typical customer project involves more than 10,000 individual technical drawings.
The product line has expanded from CADDi Drawer, a cloud-based drawing data utilization service released in June 2022, and CADDi Quote, a quotation product for procurement teams, to a broader set of applications marketed as CADDi Explorer (discovery engine), CADDi Agent, CADDi Composer (design reuse simulator), CADDi ALM (asset lifecycle management), CADDi Process Review, CADDi Design Review and CADDi Cost Review. The company positions these across automotive, construction equipment, plant and chemical, heavy industry and heavy electrical equipment, and machinery and devices sectors.
CADDi originally operated as a tech-enabled marketplace and parts broker for custom-manufactured metal components, using a proprietary cost-calculation algorithm to generate automated quotes from 3D CAD data in roughly seven seconds and match buyers with processing companies. Around 2022 the founders pivoted away from the parts marketplace to sell the AI software developed internally as a cloud platform.
Founding story
Yushiro Kato, a former McKinsey & Company consultant who co-led procurement work for the manufacturing sector and helped build the firm's IoT/AI practice, and Aki Kobashi, a Stanford-trained electrical engineer who built satellite image-processing systems at a US aerospace company and later worked on iPhone and AirPods at Apple, co-founded the company in Tokyo in November 2017. The founding premise was that manufacturing expertise embedded in drawings, factories and supplier networks was scattered and at risk of being lost, and that procurement had seen little innovation.
Business model
Software-as-a-service: CADDi licenses its cloud-based AI data platform and associated application modules to manufacturing enterprises, having moved away from its earlier transactional parts-procurement marketplace model in which it sourced and brokered custom-manufactured components.
Recurring software platform revenue from enterprise customers. Management has publicly targeted $1 billion in revenue from the software platform by 2030; an earlier 2023 statement described a goal of over $100 million in ARR for CADDi Drawer within a few years.
Traction
Reported roughly 910 employees worldwide and about 30,000+ active platform users on company materials, with 750 cited as global team members in another company statement; $202 million in total capital raised. The platform reached hundreds of customers within three years of launch, including Hitachi, Kawasaki, Subaru and Tokyo Electron. Reported customer outcomes include an automotive parts customer cutting fastener SKUs by 60% and Subaru saving hundreds of hours per month in drawing search time.
Latest developments
In March 2025 CADDi closed a $38 million Series C extension led by Atomico with participation from existing investors Global Brain and Minerva Growth, at a stated $470 million valuation, plus $30 million in long-term debt from Mizuho and other banks. Funds are directed toward product development, additional vertical modules and expansion in the US and then Europe.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Positions itself as an AI data platform layer for manufacturing, arguing that the industry's 30-to-40-year-old software systems leave supply chain and engineering data siloed and unusable for AI initiatives. In its earlier marketplace phase the company described itself as having grown into one of the world's three largest platforms for procurement of custom-manufactured parts.
Emphasizes operational roots in manufacturing (quoting from drawings, coordinating factories and inspecting quality itself) as the basis for its models, and a drawing similarity search that serves as an entry point for adjacent workflow modules such as quotation, cost review and design review. Investors cite growth exceeding T2D3 SaaS benchmarks along with unit economics and retention.
Technology
An AI-enabled search engine over technical drawings and supply chain data, including similarity search on 2D engineering schematics and drawing-based AI models, with work underway with DENSO on three-dimensional drawing search. The earlier marketplace used a proprietary cost-calculation algorithm that produced price and lead-time quotes from uploaded 3D CAD data in about seven seconds. The engineering organization includes Kaggle Grandmasters and former CTOs.
Go-to-market
Direct enterprise sales into large manufacturers, supported by case studies, webinars, trade shows and whitepapers, with partnerships such as DENSO used for co-development and reference. Management relocated key executives, including the CEO, to Chicago to build a US go-to-market team, with expansion planned into Europe; 2025 funding was earmarked to double software engineering headcount from 150 to 300.
Large global manufacturers, primarily makers of industrial and factory machinery (including food production, packaging and semiconductor manufacturing equipment) plus automotive and auto parts companies; named customers include Hitachi, Kawasaki, Subaru, Tokyo Electron, Mitsubishi Materials USA, Nichirin Tennessee and Dairy Conveyor Corporation.
Geography
Dual headquarters in Tokyo, Japan and Chicago, United States; operations reported in Japan, the United States, Vietnam and Thailand, plus Mexico supplier operations, with customer presence in 22 countries.
History
Founded in Tokyo in November 2017, the company launched the CADDi ordering/receiving platform for metal processed parts that month. It raised a seed round in February 2018 and about JPY 1.02 billion in a Series A announced in December 2018, when it had roughly 2,000 user companies, about 70 partner processing plants and 20 employees. A Series B followed in August 2021. In June 2022 it released CADDi Drawer, and in July 2023 it announced an $89 million Series C that brought total capital to $164 million; headcount had grown from 230 to 590 between the Series B and that round, with a US division and Mexico supplier operations established. In March 2025 the company closed a $38 million Series C extension led by Atomico at a $470 million valuation, alongside $30 million of long-term debt from Mizuho and other banks, bringing total venture funding to $202 million.
Risks & controversies
Company materials note that geopolitical tensions such as tariffs are expected to complicate manufacturing supply chains. Revenue figures and total customer counts have not been disclosed by management.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 10
launches, deals, and filingsKey management team members including CEO Yushiro Kato relocated to Chicago; company operates dual headquarters in Tokyo and Chicago and plans expansion in the US followed by Europe, doubling software engineers from 150 to 300.
Financing at a stated $470 million valuation with participation from existing investors Global Brain and Minerva Growth; the company additionally secured $30 million in long-term debt from Mizuho and other banks.
$38M source ↗
DENSO uses CADDi's software for component sourcing and is working with the company on additional features such as search of three-dimensional drawings.
Round co-led by Globis Capital Partners, DCM Ventures, Global Brain, World Innovation Lab, JAFCO Group and Minerva Growth Partners, bringing total capital to $164 million; proceeds directed at the manufacturing division, CADDi Drawer technology and global workforce expansion.
$89M source ↗
Company established a US division and Mexico supplier operations to serve American manufacturers, with plans to grow the US office to 100 employees within a year.
Cloud service for manufacturing drawing/data utilization aimed at capitalizing critical manufacturing data.
Third-party allotment of shares subscribed by DCM Ventures, WiL, Global Brain, Globis Capital Partners and individual investors; cumulative funding including the February 2018 seed round reached about JPY 1.09 billion.
Platform used a proprietary cost-calculation algorithm to generate price and delivery quotes from uploaded 3D CAD data in about seven seconds and match buyers with processing companies.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Company| CADDicaddi.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does CADDi do?
- Japanese-founded company offering an AI data platform that turns manufacturers' technical drawings and supply chain data into searchable assets.
- Who founded CADDi?
- CADDi was founded by Yushiro Kato.
- Who are CADDi's investors?
- CADDi's investors include Minerva Growth Partners, Atomico, DCM Ventures, Global Brain, Globis Capital Partners, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, World Innovation Lab.
- How much funding has CADDi raised?
- CADDi has disclosed $127M raised across 2 of its 7 known rounds.