Autodesk acquires Reekoh core assets to extend digital twins.
I’m excited to share that Reekoh has signed a definitive agreement for our core assets to be acquired by Autodesk, Inc. and will soon become a part of the Autodesk Tandem (Digital Twin) solution.
Reekoh has been partnering with Autodesk for the past year to help them leverage our rapid, scalable, and repeatable integration tools for operational technology and business data. We both aim to provide customers with the ability to take full control of their OT and IT data, from the physical edge to the cloud, and this acquisition advances that goal, making Reekoh’s IP fully available to Autodesk Tandem customers.
Autodesk is the global leader in software for how the world gets designed and made, aligning exactly with our vision of integrating the physical and digital worlds.
The Autodesk Tandem digital twin solution is an exciting and rapidly evolving component in their already world-class product suite, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what we’ve created find true value and benefit to a company of their pedigree and scale.
I thank Bob Bray, James Awe, Jessica Kelly and the whole Autodesk Tandem team for embracing Reekoh and bringing us into your plans for future success in this space, and I’m excited to see Reekoh reach its full potential as part of Autodesk Tandem under your direction.
For me, this has certainly all been quite the journey.
“OT/IT convergence, interoperability, unified name space, data architecture”; these have become very common talking points in Industry 4.0 and IIoT circles, and it feels good to know that we have been right on the leading edge of this movement for quite some time. The years that we’ve invested in this space, and the early vision we had to be the leader in integration for the physical and digital worlds, means that Reekoh will now play a critical role in this rapidly expanding area of opportunity at Autodesk.
Founding and scaling Reekoh has been one of the great adventures of my near-30-years in technology. From a room with a whiteboard and a couple of developers in 2015, to a team that reached 40+ across 3 countries and then to this announcement, it’s been a hell of a ride.
Startups are hard — plain and simple.
As a founder, having conviction of purpose and vision in the face of constant challenge, serial setbacks, poor decisions (often by yourself), pandemics and crises of confidence is hard. The highs are high and the lows are low, and anyone who tells you otherwise hasn’t done it for themselves. However, it’s also incredibly rewarding and inspiring as you bring together ideas and talented people to achieve common goals and birth game-changing products into the world.
Personally, the last few years have been some of the most challenging I have lived and worked through. Fortunately I’ve had my incredible wife Tanya to lean on — she’s been amazing and I couldn’t have done any of this without her. We’re both now looking forward to things being a little simpler for a while!
I would also like to thank a few other key people that have made this adventure possible.
Firstly, John Orrock has been my principal investor and backer since the very beginning. I was helping John on some other ventures when the original idea emerged to look at a platform-play for integration and IoT and, without him and his support, none of this would have been possible. Thank you, John.
To Aaron Watkins, Ludwig Tirazona and Joana Pardico — thank you for the massive contributions you have made to our product, culture and company over many years, and for riding the rollercoaster with me.
Similarly, thank you to Paul Kamper and Richard Mallam for your investment in me personally and in Reekoh’s ultimate success. Your combined experience, independent counsel and importantly your sense of humour have been invaluable to me this past year.
And to the entire Reekoh team (past and present) across Australia, the US and Philippines, and our customers and partners around the world; a heartfelt thank you for making Reekoh what it is today.
So, what’s next?
I’ll be guiding the transition from the Reekoh side and enabling a smooth integration of product and people into Autodesk. Somewhere in amongst that, I expect there’ll also be something resembling what normal people call a “holiday”, catching up with friends, colleagues and generally pondering new opportunities and ideas I might sink my teeth into next. I’m very excited about what the future holds.
If you’re interested in a coffee and a chat, feel free to reach out.
As always … onwards!
Dale.
