Manufacturing design collaboration software startup pockets $3.8 million Seed raise

A manufacturing design collaboration and quotation software startup has raised $3.8 million in a Seed round to bring the process into the digital age.

Phasio was founded in 2021 by Harry Lucas and ex-CSIRO researcher Sudharshan Raman, Phasio is digitising how manufacturers quote, design and collaborate with customers, bringing a Google Docs-like approach to the design phase.

The round was led by AirTree Ventures with support from Michael Sorkin’s Gattaca Ventures, Canva backer 500 Global and Entrepreneur First.

Australia lags well behind the rest of the world when it comes to manufacturing’s contribution to GDP, at just 5% compared to a 16% average globally. While federal and state governments are pushing to revitalise the sector with funding for what’s been dubbed modern manufacturing, the infrastructure around it remains mired in the industrial age.

Phasio cofounder and CEO Harry Conor Lucas, said that while manufacturing accounts for around a quarter of Australia’s R&D investment, the industry itself is weighed down by inefficient, siloed processes

“Our vision with Phasio is to elevate a new wave of local manufacturers onto the global stage. We believe that local manufacturing is the lifeblood of product innovation, and that by empowering local manufacturers to do more, we can in fact grow the manufacturing industry for everyone globally,” he said.

“Phasio offers an alternative to the us-vs-them mentality. We can have our local manufacturing industry, but also benefit from working with the right partners.”

The manufacturing interface provides an end-to-end workflow between customers and manufacturers) to create instant quotations, collaborate on designs, and manage personalised order experiences.

The funding will be used to expand the engineering team and accelerate its go-to-market strategy. Already more than 50 manufacturers use Phasio in Australia, South East Asia and Europe.

Phasio is integrated with several Computer Aided Design (CAD) platforms, as well as accounting and shipping software and has also developed an AI chatbot it calls ManufacturingGPT (mGPT) to answer customer questions