Prodsmart acquired by Autodesk, Inc.
We are happy to announce that Prodsmart Informática, S.A, an Innovation Nest Fund II Portuguese portfolio company, is joining design and make software company Autodesk. Innovation Nest originally invested in Prodsmart in 2017 along with Join Capital and Caixa Capital. Prodsmart was one of the first investments for the fund in Portugal.
“I’m extremely happy for Gonçalo and Samuel on their exit to Autodesk. I have watched them follow their dream to digitize factory floors for years now, and joining Autodesk is a well-deserved success. Portugal continues to be a great breeding ground for successful tech entrepreneurs. I am thankful for the opportunity Gonçalo and Samuel have given us to back their journey — well done!” — Marcin Szelag, Partner at Innovation Nest
Since the seed round, we have been actively supporting Gonçalo and Samuel in pursuing their vision of “smart production”. Our initial investment thesis was based on a strong trend to digitize the factory floor. Global supply chains are fragmented, as millions of small manufacturers supply various parts and products to their respective brand customers. Across most industries, the supply chain visibility of the factory floor is still very much analogue.
Prodsmart introduced a simple solution to a painful market problem. As we have continued to fund the company, we saw how the pain of supply chain visibility was only getting stronger. The pinnacle point came as the global supply chains got hit by a global pandemic. As production shut down in various countries, due to Covid-19 restrictions, manufacturers and vendors were hit even more. This was the “perfect storm” for Prodsmart. We saw a spike in inbound leads, especially from large global retailers and brands. Thanks to these large customers, Prodsmart started tapping into their thousands of suppliers, to offer their solution for supply chain visibility. At the same time, we also saw interest pick up from other software vendors who were already in the manufacturing space. One of those partners was Autodesk.
We believe that Industry 4.0 and the digitization of the factory floor is still on day one. Our strong conviction in Prodsmart still continues and we believe that under Autodesk’s vast network of customers, Prodsmart’s product will enhance many factory floor operations.
“Innovation Nest was instrumental to Prodsmart’s success and they’ve really delivered on their promise of helping European SaaS companies move to the US market. We’re very happy to have had them as partners in Prodsmart’s journey.” — Gonçalo Fortes, Prodsmart
About Innovation Nest:
Innovation Nest invests in top European teams building B2B Software businesses and are seeking pre-seed or seed financing. We are a human-centric organization. We realize talented individuals can be found anywhere, and exceptional teams can accomplish extraordinary results.
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