À propos de ThreadMoat
ThreadMoat est la plateforme d'intelligence de marché pour l'IA industrielle et les logiciels d'ingénierie, créée et maintenue par Michael Finocchiaro — un analyste indépendant avec 30+ ans chez Dassault Systèmes, PTC, IBM et HP, qui conseille aujourd'hui les entreprises qui les perturbent.
Chaque profil est soigneusement sélectionné — pas collecté automatiquement ni généré par IA — et mis à jour chaque semaine avec les événements de financement, les lancements de produits et le scoring concurrentiel.
761
Startups suivies
>$15B
Financement VC cartographié
43
Pays
10
Sous-segments de marché
Données à jour en Q1 2026
What Makes This Different
Three structural advantages that no scraper, no LLM, and no general-purpose database can replicate.
Quarterly Cohort Refresh
New startups, exits, and funding events added every quarter. Subscribers always work from the current cohort, not a year-old snapshot. The data compounds in value as the market evolves.
Proprietary 7-Dimension Scoring
Each company rated across Market Opportunity, Team Execution, Funding Efficiency, Growth Metrics, Technical Differentiation, Industry Impact, and Competitive Moat. Rated by a single analyst, consistently, since 2022. That continuity is the signal.
PLM-Native, Not Scraped
Crunchbase has 3M companies. We have 700+ that actually matter in engineering software. Every entry is hand-curated by a domain expert who spent 30 years inside the vendors being disrupted.
Michael Finocchiaro
Analyste industrie · Consultant · Conseiller
Paris, France
À propos de Michael Finocchiaro
Michael est un analyste senior indépendant du PLM et de l'industrie manufacturière et l'animateur des podcasts AI Across the Product Lifecycle et The Future of PLM, axés sur le Digital Thread et l'adoption de l'IA industrielle dans l'ingénierie et la fabrication.
Avec 30+ ans chez Dassault Systèmes (Directeur Sr., 3DEXPERIENCE), PTC, IBM et HP, Michael conseille désormais les startups et les entreprises industrielles sur le positionnement, la stratégie go-to-market et le déploiement entreprise. Il est également l'auteur de Kernel Wars — une histoire de la CAO, du PLM et des batailles de noyaux géométriques qui ont façonné l'industrie.
A travaillé chez
A travaillé avec
Threaded! Série de conférences
Threaded! réunit startups et leaders de l'industrie pour des sessions de travail intensives sur la façon dont l'IA transforme l'ingénierie et la fabrication. Les présentateurs doivent montrer explicitement comment leurs produits se connectent au Digital Thread — quels systèmes ils intègrent, quelles décisions ils améliorent et quels résultats mesurables ils permettent.
Co-sponsorisé par Aras Corporation et le podcast AI Across the Product Lifecycle, Threaded! connecte les fournisseurs de solutions nouvelle génération avec les leaders d'entreprise du PLM et du Digital Thread. Le partage guidé de solutions et les retours structurés aident les fondateurs à affiner leur direction produit, à préciser leurs ICP et à construire des preuves crédibles pour les acheteurs entreprise.
Threaded! Warwick
at Develop3D Live
Threaded! Miami
at Aras ACE 2026
More dates
Coming soon
Podcasts et contenu
AI Across the Product Lifecycle
Conversations franches avec des fondateurs, CTO et leaders d'entreprise qui construisent et déploient l'IA dans l'ingénierie et la fabrication. Startups deep-tech, histoires d'adoption réelles.
The Future of PLM
Podcast vidéo avec des leaders d'opinion de l'industrie discutant de l'évolution du PLM, de la stratégie Digital Thread et des dynamiques de marché.
DemystifyingPLM — Blog et archives du podcast
Le site jumeau de ThreadMoat : une décennie d'articles, d'archives d'épisodes de podcast et d'analyses approfondies sur le PLM, le fil numérique et le logiciel industriel.
What Counts as a “Startup”?
ThreadMoat uses a strict, consistent definition. Every company in the database is classified against these criteria so aggregates, benchmarks, and filters mean the same thing across every chart.
Core Definition
A startup is an independently operated company founded within the last 10 years that has not gone public, has not been acquired by a larger corporation or private equity firm, and is actively building or scaling a business — typically pre-profitability or not yet cash-flow positive at scale.
Incorporated and building, but no public announcement of funding, product launch, or market entry. Founders are known; the company operates below public radar by choice.
- ✓Founded within the last 10 years
- ✓Independently operated — not a subsidiary or carveout
- ✓No publicly disclosed funding rounds or product ship
- ✓Not acquired, not IPO'd, not PE-backed
Early-stage companies with Pre-Seed through Series A funding, or bootstrapped and independently growing. The defining trait is independent operation and active scaling intent — not whether they have taken VC money.
- ✓Founded within the last 10 years
- ✓Independently operated
- ✓Funding stage: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A — or bootstrapped ≤10 years
- ✓Not acquired, not IPO'd, not PE-backed rollup
Bootstrapped companies ≤10 years old that are actively growing are included here.
Venture-backed companies at Series B or later in active expansion mode — scaling go-to-market, entering new geographies, or consolidating market share. Still private and pre-IPO.
- ✓Founded within the last 10 years (or restructured as an independent scaleup)
- ✓Independently operated
- ✓Funding stage: Series B, C, D, or later
- ✓Revenue-generating with proven product-market fit
Privately held companies valued at $1 billion or more that remain independent and pre-exit. Included because they are still private, investable, and strategically relevant to the market.
- ✓Privately held — no public listing
- ✓Independently operated (not a subsidiary)
- ✓Investor-assigned valuation of $1B+
- ✓Not acquired, not IPO'd
Statistical outliers with extreme valuations at stealth stage are excluded from aggregate charts with a methodology footnote.
Spun out of a larger corporation and now independently operated with its own cap table and management. Included when the spinout is operationally independent and less than 10 years old as a standalone entity.
- ✓Spun out from corporate parent within the last 10 years
- ✓Independent management with its own cap table
- ✓Has raised external (non-parent) capital or operates with full strategic autonomy
- ✓Not a wholly owned subsidiary — parent revenue/headcount are excluded
Excluded: carveouts where the underlying technology is >10 years old and the parent remains the effective owner (e.g. assets rebranded by a PE rollup).
Privately held companies that have grown to meaningful scale without institutional venture capital — self-funded through revenue, founder capital, or small angel rounds.
- ✓Founded within the last 10 years
- ✓No institutional VC or PE backing
- ✓Independently operated and generating revenue
- ✓Not acquired, not IPO'd
Excluded from Startup Counts
Companies that have been acquired (by a larger corporation or PE firm), gone public via IPO, shut down, or are classified as PE rollups of mature software assets are tracked separately but excluded from all startup aggregates, benchmarks, and count metrics. This prevents distortion of the market picture by companies that are no longer independently competing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ThreadMoat?
ThreadMoat is a market intelligence platform providing competitive scoring, funding data, investor networks, and interactive analytics for the industrial AI and engineering software landscape.
Who builds ThreadMoat?
ThreadMoat is built by Michael Finocchiaro, an engineering software and industrial AI expert with 35+ years of experience across PLM, CAD, simulation, and manufacturing software.
What markets does ThreadMoat cover?
ThreadMoat covers 761 startups across PLM, CAD, CAE, simulation, IoT, industrial AI, manufacturing software, and adjacent engineering technology sectors.
How is ThreadMoat different from Crunchbase or PitchBook?
Crunchbase and PitchBook cover millions of companies across every sector. ThreadMoat covers only the engineering software and industrial AI startups that matter, curated by a domain expert who spent 30 years inside the vendors being disrupted. Every entry is hand-scored across 7 dimensions: market opportunity, team execution, funding efficiency, growth metrics, technical differentiation, industry impact, and competitive moat.
How often is the data updated?
ThreadMoat data is updated at least once per week with new startup intelligence — new companies, exits, and funding events — so subscribers always work from the current state of the market, not a stale snapshot.