The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Strategic decision · 2017–2025
CADDi (キャディ) bets factory drawings data is the moat; Atomico leads $38M round
Ex-McKinsey Yushiro Kato turns decades of factory drawings into searchable AI data; CADDi raises $202M and lands Hitachi, Subaru, Tokyo Electron.
CADDi (キャディ)
What the business is
Sells a manufacturing AI data platform — drawing search, quotation and procurement tools built on structured technical-drawing data — to industrial manufacturers in Japan, the US, Vietnam and Thailand.
Starting capital：$202M total equity funding since 2017
How it started
Kato, a McKinsey consultant, and Kobashi, an ex-Apple and Lockheed Martin engineer, founded CADDi in Tokyo in 2017 to fix custom-parts procurement for mid-volume manufacturers; customers sent technical drawings and CADDi sourced the parts as a broker.
What happened
CADDi raised $73M Series B in 2021 (about $450M valuation, $90.5M total), then $89M Series C in July 2023 (total $164M), claiming 70% of Japan's top-20 industrial equipment makers among marketplace customers and Tokyo Electron and EBARA on its Drawer cloud. Around 2022 it pivoted to the AI data platform: one automotive customer cut fastener SKUs by 60%, and Subaru said CADDi saved it hundreds of hours per month in drawing searches.
How it ended up
Still running and expanding; on 2025-03-27 it closed a $38M Series C-extension led by Atomico plus $30M in long-term debt, valuing the company at $470M, and moved its CEO to Chicago to push US expansion; it targets $1B software revenue by 2030.
Background
CADDi is a Tokyo-founded manufacturing software company that turns technical drawings and order history into a searchable, structured data platform, with drawing search, quotation and procurement products. Co-founders Yushiro Kato (ex-McKinsey) and Aki Kobashi (ex-Apple, Lockheed Martin) started it in 2017 as a tech-enabled parts marketplace, where customers sent drawings and CADDi sourced the parts for them.
The bet was that the durable moat is data, not brokerage: manufacturers' engineering, procurement and sales teams were drowning in 30-40 year old software and scattered drawings, so CADDi pivoted around 2022 to sell the AI search and quotation software it had built in-house.
The numbers scaled with the pivot: $73M Series B in 2021 (~$450M valuation), $89M Series C in July 2023 taking total funding to $164M, and a $38M Series C-extension led by Atomico in March 2025 at a $470M valuation, bringing total equity funding to $202M.
Customers like Hitachi, Kawasaki, Subaru and Tokyo Electron validated the thesis — Subaru reported saving hundreds of hours per month in drawing searches, and one automotive customer cut fastener SKUs by 60% — and CADDi is now expanding from Japan into the US and Europe with a target of $1B software revenue by 2030.
What has to be true
- The pivot was evidence-driven: while brokering parts, CADDi saw engineers recreating or failing to find drawings, so it built search before it built a sales pitch.
- The data layer is a wedge into every factory decision — pricing, procurement, quality and design all depend on finding and comparing past work.
- Named global customers and measurable wins (Subaru hours saved, 60% fewer fastener SKUs) made the ROI story concrete for later rounds.
- A $470M valuation on $202M raised shows investors believe the drawings-data platform, not the original marketplace, is where value concentrates.
What can be applied
The wedge can move: CADDi built a marketplace, then found the scarce asset — untapped drawings data — and pivoted to sell the software, where the moat and valuation came from.
Aftermath
As of the 2025-03-27 announcement, CADDi is headquartered in both Tokyo and Chicago with 600+ employees and plans to double its software engineers from 150 to 300. The company is scaling the AI data platform in the US, adding modules like CADDi Quote on top of drawing similarity search, and targets $1B revenue from its software platform by 2030. It also holds about $30M in long-term debt from Mizuho and other banks alongside the Atomico-led equity round.
Sources
- CADDi raises $89M Series C to scale its B2B supply chain marketplace for manufacturing parts
- CADDi raises $38M Series C Extension led by Atomico to double down on rapid growth of their AI data platform for manufacturing companies
- Exclusive: Japanese AI startup CADDi that helps manufacturers optimize supply chains gets $38 million in new funding
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