Industrial design firm Hoteam Software recently closed its Series B financing round worth RMB 180 million (USD 27.8 million), led by investors Silicon Harbor Capital and Guotai Junan Securities. The funds will go towards developing and marketing a new generation of products, including a domestic cloud-based design solution.
Founded in 1993, Hoteam Software focuses on intelligent manufacturing solutions through the use of 3D computer-aided design and product lifecycle management software. The company’s products are built for advanced industrial sectors, including construction machinery, aerospace and military equipment, nuclear power, rail transit, and automobiles. Several of its notable clients include GAC Group, Zoomlion, PetroChina, Haier, and Chang’an Automobile.
Currently, China’s industrial design software market is dominated by foreign players like Siemens, PTC, and Dassault, with Chinese firms accounting for just a 7% market share. But China’s overall industrial software market is on the rise, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 20% in recent years, with total revenue in the sector reaching RMB 172 billion (USD 26.5 billion) in 2019. Meanwhile, design software is expected to outperform other verticals, growing at a CAGR of more than 26%, with its market expected to be worth RMB 7.2 billion (USD 1.1 billion) by 2027, according to data compiled by BIS Research.
Hoteam Software stands out among its competitors because its services cover an entire product’s lifecycle, with solutions spanning R&D, design, manufacturing, and supply chain management, chairman Yang Chaoying said. Most industrial design software providers use modeling engines from multinational giants, while Hoteam Software developed its own 3D modeling engine, Yang added. Among the company’s software products are cloud-based solutions that are adapted to run on Chinese integrated circuits and operating systems.
“Industrial software is the soul of intelligent manufacturing, and it is necessary for China to transition its manufacturing strength from scale to intelligence. Hoteam Software has spent more than a decade independently developing and designing its own 3D modeling engine. We believe that Hoteam Software can break into a market dominated by international firms, and advance the strategic goals of developing China’s industrial software industry,” said He Xin, a partner at Silicon Harbour Capital. Guotai Junan Securities’ chairman Jiang Wei echoed He’s thoughts, adding that Hoteam Software has a strong technical foundation and the ability to scale its products.
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KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content published by 36Kr. This article was originally written by Qiu Xiaofen for 36Kr.