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We are pleased to announce that Michelle and Kier, the ex-NVIDIA duo, have raised $21.5 million in seed funding, led by EQT Ventures, to supercharge their robotics simulation startup. The platform helps robotics companies to train and calibrate their tech, accelerating training by up to 100x.
At its core, Vsim is building the operating system for Robotic simulation and training. The Manchester-based company has built a revolutionary architecture and set of algorithms that enable companies in robotics, AI, Visual FX, research, and the industrial metaverse to fast-track a wide range of cross-disciplinary, high-quality physics simulations.
Its novel ML framework enables users to train complex multimodal robotics tasks with an order of magnitude increase in performance, reducing the time and cost of training on GPUs.
Narrowing in on a sector we at Concept see as one of the largest opportunities over the next decade, robotics (and the rise in general-purpose robots such as 1x, Skild and Figure). We see factors such as the reduction in cost over time and the number of technical talent flooding into the space as great tailwinds for building within the sector.
Achieving the speed and flexibility to unlock near real-time capabilities within training is a multi-billion-dollar opportunity for every sector within robotics. Today's tools are bottlenecked by the legacy architectures or the lack of scalable software tools designed to enable Sim to Real in an efficient manner, as highlighted below, existing tools struggle with;
Enter Vsim - the company that utilises new algorithms that leverage multi-core hardware architectures to accelerate physics simulations for companies in a wide range of industries including robotics, Visual FX, aerodynamics for planes & vehicles, healthcare and e-commerce, amongst others.
The technology seeks to solve two major problems with existing solutions in the market.
The seed funding round led by EQT Ventures will supercharge Vsim’s team growth and ultimately accelerate the company's pursuit of building a full-stack solution tailored to robotics. The round saw participation from Factorial Fund, Samsung Next, Tru Arrow, Xora (owned by Temasek), IQ Capital, Koro Capital, Concept Ventures, Lakestar Scout Fund, and Concept Venture Partner Carles Reina. This follows a pre-seed fundraise led by Concept Ventures in late 2023.
Co-founded in 2022 and led by Michelle Lu, CEO, and Kier Storey, CTO, Vsim benefits from its founders’ 20 years of experience in physics simulation that include over a decade each in Nvidia's simulation technology team, developing open-source physics engines.
As people-centric investors, we were particularly excited by Michelle and Kiers' unique background, upbringing, and experience, which gave them the technical traits and drive to build a category-defining product in the robotics space.
Michelle and Kier initially met at Newcastle University, While doing their PhD they discovered their love for how simulation was at the core of developing games and how robots were manipulated. It was whilst at NVIDIA that they saw the opportunity to build a next-generation framework that expands the capabilities of what is possible today.
Michelle and Kier have been on an intense and explosive journey over the last seven months, working tirelessly to build out the core technical components of their architecture, and we have been proud to support them along this way.
At Concept, one of the things we do for our founders is track our support. It keeps us aligned on our goal to support every team when most critical.
In the case of Vsim, we made 60+ interactions for the team amongst all the phone calls and discussions when things were going well and not so well!
Michelle and Kier, Co-Founders of Vsim:
“Concept was the first investor we spoke to and has been instrumental in supporting us to this stage. From their support of customers to introducing our lead investor, we couldn’t ask for more."
Ariel Rahamim, Principal at Concept Ventures:
“From the moment we meet Michelle and Kier, it was clear they had a unique insight and the technical skillset to realise their vision. Seeing their dedication and persistence over the last year has been nothing short of remarkable. I'm excited to keep supporting them and the team, and see what the future holds."
We are pleased to be a part of the Vsim journey and excited by the potential to realise the opportunity in the years ahead.
Follow Vsim on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/company/vsim-technology/
Learn more about Vsim at www.v-sim.co.uk
