AI-Powered CNC Startup Received Fresh Funding

Toolpath, led by former Autodesk Fusion product manager Al Whatmough, has just closed a fresh round of funding led by Kennametal Inc., an 85-year-old machine-tool supplier. Toolpath's partners and investors also include ModuleWorks, a CAD-CAM software developer, and Leaders Fund. In September 2024, the company raised $10 million in its seed round of financing led by Leaders Fund. The latest amount raised is undisclosed. 

Whatmough said, “The industry-leading caliber of these investors underscores that our AI-powered tools bring genuine, immediate value to machining businesses and manufacturers."

Toolpath was cofounded in 2021 by Andy Powell, an entrepreneur, and Justin Gray, an aerospace engineer and computer scientist. Whatmough, who led the initiative to bring CAM features into Autodesk Fusion at Autodesk, joined Toolpath as CEO in 2024. The company says its mission is to “accelerate innovation by making it faster, easier, and less expensive to prototype and produce CNC machined parts."

Toolpath UI showing feature aggregation after CAD model analysis. Image courtesy of Toolpath.

Toolpath is optimized to simulate 3-axis CNC machining. Its centerpiece is the AI-trained algorithm to analyze a CAD model's characteristics, identify the machines suitable for manufacturing the part, and provide a cost estimate. In doing so, the software automates a process that largely remains manual currently, Whatmough explained.

Toolpath's strategy is to target machine shops that need to analyze parts quickly and estimate the cost of production based on the machines available onsite. Toolpath has developed an Autodesk Fusion add-on, allowing Fusion users to import Toolpath's CNC program into Fusion and further refine it before sending it to a machine. 

"By automating the mundane tasks, we free up the programmer to focus on higher order tasks," said Whatmough. "Today, every programmer handles about two to three CNC machines. If we do our job right, every programmer may be able to manage 20 or 30 machines."

The software is browser-based and cloud-hosted, available by subscription. A standard $1,500-per-year Toolpath subscription comes with one user and two machine connections. Additional users and machines may be added for $900 per user, $600 per machine.

The price is meant to be disruptive, Whatmough said. "Our goal is to scale up the business by adding more machines, because I don't think we have a skill gap in our sector. We have a productivity gap," he added.

Toolpath also let users upload their own programmed parts from the past to further train the algorithm so it gets better at suggesting machining strategies based on in-house machines and user preferences. 

Since Kennametal is an investor and partner, Toolpath comes with a library of Kennametal machines.