Cambridge-based Leo AI closed a $9.7 million seed round to expand its specialized AI platform for mechanical engineering. Flint Capital led the oversubscribed round, with participation from an Andreessen Horowitz scout, TechAviv, Two Lanterns VC, Bertrand Sicot (former CEO of SolidWorks), and Prof. Yossi Matias (VP at Google and Head of Google Research).
Leo built what it calls a Large Mechanical Model (LMM), essentially an AI trained on mechanical parts, product designs, and engineering standards instead of general text. Think of it like ChatGPT, but instead of learning from books and websites, it learned from millions of real-world products and engineering manuals.
The company claims this specialized training delivers 95% accuracy on engineering queries, compared to generic AI tools that often provide unreliable information for technical tasks. Engineers at HP, Scania, Siemens, and Mobileye are among the 50,000 users who have generated over 475,000 3D concepts using the platform.
The problem it solves
Mechanical engineers, the people who design everything from car engines to medical devices, currently toil on mundane tasks. According to Leo, engineers spend over 150 workdays per year just searching for information and selecting parts, leaving only half their time for actual innovation.
"When I started out as a mechanical engineer, I thought I'd be designing life-saving robots and next-gen vehicles. Instead, I spent weeks just searching for parts, and that's a harsh reality that most engineers face," said Maor Farid, Leo AI's co-founder. "Leo saves up to 5 hours of repetitive work each week. And, most importantly; it helps engineers get their spark and passion for innovation back."