The Ten Investment Lists
ThreadMoat organizes 1219 active industrial software startups into investment lists — one primary membership per company, so the numbers add up and nothing is counted twice. Each list gets a measured analysis page: funding, verified customers, incumbents, evergreens, investors, and geography.
A tenth list, Physical AI (Robots, Drones, Autonomy), 90 companies, is now part of the dashboard. Its measured page here is coming soon.
The Lists, Measured
| Investment List | Core | Adjacent | Evergreens | Funding | Customer rels | Median founded | Incumbents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factory Futures (MES, IIOT) | 189 | 83 | 6 | $7.0B | 549 | 2020 | 20 |
| Augmented Operations (MOM, CMMS, AR/VR, SLM) | 185 | 106 | 4 | $3.9B | 571 | 2020 | 13 |
| Bleeding Edge BIM (AEC/BIM) | 169 | 12 | 1 | $2.9B | 553 | 2020 | 9 |
| Design Intelligence (CAD) | 152 | 136 | 6 | $20.8B | 343 | 2022 | 16 |
| Extreme Analysis (CAE, CFD, FEA, QC) | 115 | 61 | 6 | $2.6B | 355 | 2021 | 16 |
| Cognitive Thread (PLM, MBSE, DT) | 107 | 43 | 3 | $1.5B | 380 | 2022 | 9 |
| Streamlined Supply Chain (SCM) | 92 | 59 | 0 | $2.6B | 203 | 2020 | 10 |
| Physical AI (Robots, Drones, Autonomy) | 90 | 12 | 1 | $20.2B | 175 | 2020 | 5 |
| Adaptive Manufacturing (AM, CAM, CNC) | 63 | 98 | 1 | $1.6B | 140 | 2021 | 6 |
| Knowledge Engineering (R&D, Learning) | 57 | 40 | 3 | $2.7B | 99 | 2021 | 8 |
Core = primary list membership (active companies; the basis of every statistic). Adjacent = secondary membership, shown separately on each page, never mixed into aggregates. Customer relationships are individually verified. Data snapshot: 2026-10-12; figures recompute from the canonical dataset at every build.
What Each List Covers
Factory Futures (MES, IIOT)
Manufacturing Execution Systems and Industrial IoT: the software layer that connects shop-floor machines to production decisions.
189 startups · $7.0BAugmented Operations (MOM, CMMS, AR/VR, SLM)
Manufacturing operations management, maintenance, AR/VR work instructions, and service lifecycle tools — software for the people who run and repair physical operations.
185 startups · $3.9BBleeding Edge BIM (AEC/BIM)
Construction and building-tech startups: BIM authoring, reality capture, construction management, and the software stack of the built environment.
169 startups · $2.9BDesign Intelligence (CAD)
Startups reinventing how geometry gets created: AI-assisted CAD, generative design, text-to-CAD, and the tooling layer around the big authoring platforms.
152 startups · $20.8BExtreme Analysis (CAE, CFD, FEA, QC)
Simulation and analysis: CFD, FEA, AI surrogates, and quality control — startups making physics computation faster and cheaper.
115 startups · $2.6BCognitive Thread (PLM, MBSE, DT)
PLM, model-based systems engineering, and digital thread startups — the connective data layer of product development.
107 startups · $1.5BStreamlined Supply Chain (SCM)
Supply chain software for manufacturers: sourcing, procurement, logistics visibility, and supplier intelligence.
92 startups · $2.6BPhysical AI (Robots, Drones, Autonomy)
Physical AI: we cover the robots and drones, and the software that runs them, that contribute to the AI Factory of the Future, meaning machines that build, inspect, move material through, or monitor factories, plants and job sites, across the industry groups we track: discrete manufacturing, process industries, construction, and natural resources (mines and quarries; agriculture only where it is processing). Robots for homes, hospitals and labs, defense, roads, or e-commerce fulfilment are outside the thesis.
90 startups · $20.2BAdaptive Manufacturing (AM, CAM, CNC)
Additive manufacturing, CAM, and CNC software: toolpaths, build preparation, and the quoting layer of physical part production.
63 startups · $1.6BKnowledge Engineering (R&D, Learning)
R&D intelligence, materials informatics, and engineering knowledge tools — software that compounds what an organization knows.
57 startups · $2.7BWhere is CPQ? Classic configure-price-quote is white space
Across the full dataset, strict CPQ — configure-price-quote as the product — is nearly empty: Infinitive stands essentially alone. The attack on quoting is coming from somewhere else: CAD-file-native quoting tools that price a part straight from its geometry, clustered mostly in Adaptive Manufacturing.
The adjacent cluster: manufacturing quoting automation, mostly living in Adaptive Manufacturing.
The interactive version of every list
Full rankings, named customer mappings, investor matrices, and 30+ analytics views across the complete dataset.