The Nine Investment Lists
ThreadMoat organizes 1254 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 — SW+HW=Innovation (Drones, Robots), 137 companies — is hardware-centric: covered in the dataset, not paged here.
The Lists, Measured
| Investment List | Core | Adjacent | Evergreens | Funding | Customer rels | Median founded | Mean AI | Incumbents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factory Futures (MES, IIOT) | 187 | 80 | 5 | $6.1B | 558 | 2020 | 2.7 | 20 |
| Augmented Operations (MOM, CMMS, AR/VR, SLM) | 187 | 101 | 4 | $4.2B | 551 | 2020 | 2.9 | 13 |
| Bleeding Edge BIM (AEC/BIM) | 162 | 15 | 4 | $3.6B | 558 | 2020 | 2.5 | 9 |
| Design Intelligence (CAD) | 144 | 152 | 7 | $20.0B | 314 | 2022 | 4.7 | 16 |
| Extreme Analysis (CAE, CFD, FEA, QC) | 109 | 58 | 6 | $2.4B | 359 | 2021 | 4.3 | 16 |
| Cognitive Thread (PLM, MBSE, DT) | 103 | 49 | 2 | $2.4B | 415 | 2022 | 3.3 | 9 |
| Streamlined Supply Chain (SCM) | 89 | 59 | 0 | $2.3B | 207 | 2020 | 2.2 | 10 |
| Adaptive Manufacturing (AM, CAM, CNC) | 68 | 104 | 2 | $1.5B | 142 | 2021 | 3.6 | 6 |
| Knowledge Engineering (R&D, Learning) | 68 | 35 | 3 | $5.5B | 115 | 2021 | 3.7 | 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: 2026-09-11; 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.
187 startups · $6.1BAugmented 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.
187 startups · $4.2BBleeding Edge BIM (AEC/BIM)
Construction and building-tech startups: BIM authoring, reality capture, construction management, and the software stack of the built environment.
162 startups · $3.6BDesign 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.
144 startups · $20.0BExtreme Analysis (CAE, CFD, FEA, QC)
Simulation and analysis: CFD, FEA, AI surrogates, and quality control — startups making physics computation faster and cheaper.
109 startups · $2.4BCognitive Thread (PLM, MBSE, DT)
PLM, model-based systems engineering, and digital thread startups — the connective data layer of product development.
103 startups · $2.4BStreamlined Supply Chain (SCM)
Supply chain software for manufacturers: sourcing, procurement, logistics visibility, and supplier intelligence.
89 startups · $2.3BAdaptive Manufacturing (AM, CAM, CNC)
Additive manufacturing, CAM, and CNC software: toolpaths, build preparation, and the quoting layer of physical part production.
68 startups · $1.5BKnowledge Engineering (R&D, Learning)
R&D intelligence, materials informatics, and engineering knowledge tools — software that compounds what an organization knows.
68 startups · $5.5BWhere 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.