Nominal Inc. has raised $240 million in a Series C funding round, the hardware-testing and engineering software startup announced. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Insight Partners led the investment, which triples Nominal's valuation to $3 billion from the $1 billion it reached in March after an $80 million Series B-2 round. Lux Capital, Sequoia, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Avenir, Salesforce Ventures, M13 and Lockheed Martin Ventures also participated as major investors.
Nominal sells software that helps engineers develop hardware by consolidating testing and development work. Engineers typically have to assemble data from separate testing systems to understand how a machine performed under realistic conditions and what needs fixing. Nominal's platform gathers that information, automates testing and applies AI to analyze the results, shortening the cycle between testing and design so improvements and iterations come faster.
The company's AI agent, Nominal Analyst, examines the sensor readings, logs, video and simulation results produced by hardware tests and performs analysis grounded in that evidence. Nominal said it built its AI Intelligence Platform in layers, connecting engineering applications, agent infrastructure and data, and reaching the physical world through sensors. The product works alongside engineers on aircraft, rocket engines, autonomous vehicles, drones and energy systems, using associated engineering data and documentation to investigate performance, compare tests and check results against requirements.
Co-founder and Chief Executive Cameron McCord said hardware engineering is getting its AI moment, with operational value that goes well beyond speeding up existing workflows. He said the companies building the world's most advanced machines hold decades of hard-won knowledge, and that engineers remain in command, with purpose-built AI helping them do their best work. Nominal said the challenge is putting that knowledge to work and connecting it to data so engineers can take on harder problems than wiring up tests.
Nominal works with tools engineers already use, including application programming interfaces, Model Context Protocol and SQL for database queries. Developers can also access the platform directly to connect tools, build custom applications and create their own workflows and agents. More than 80 commercial and government organizations use the platform, according to the company, including five of the seven biggest defense contractors. Named customers include defense technology company Anduril Industries Inc., military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., known as HII, and high-speed aircraft developer Hermeus Corp.
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