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Aras®, the next leader in enterprise Product Lifecycle
Management (PLM) software, today announced a $40 million investment round
led by Silver Lake Kraftwerk, a fund of Silver Lake, the global leader in
technology investing, with participation from GE Ventures, the investment
arm of General Electric. Aras will use this minority investment to drive
growth, expand operations – including Aras’ world-class service and support
– and further extend Aras’ technology leadership through development and
acquisitions.
“We invest in breakout companies that accelerate industrial transformation
through a combination of technology innovation and disruptive business
models,” said Martin Fichtner, Managing Director of Silver Lake Kraftwerk.
“Aras embodies this strategy with a game changing platform and ‘SaaS
Anywhere’ approach that have proven very compelling to customers, and we
are excited about Aras’ next stage of growth.”
With increasing complexity driven by the Internet of Things (IoT) and
Industrial Internet – in everything from connected cars and smart homes to
industrial equipment – global manufacturers are rethinking the technology
that supports the business of engineering necessary to develop, produce and
service tomorrow’s next generation products.
“Enterprises need a much more flexible, scalable and upgradable platform
for the business of engineering,” said Peter Schroer, CEO and Founder of
Aras. “We help companies transform and optimize every stage of the product
lifecycle – by enabling the digital thread which connects data and
processes from systems engineering and simulation to smart manufacturing
and predictive maintenance – and creating the digital twin, the exact
digital representation of a car, ship or aircraft engine.”
“To power the next wave of global industrial productivity, GE is investing
in critical foundational capabilities for the Industrial Internet. Aras’
PLM platform delivers digital twin product configuration and digital thread
traceability across the lifecycle which are critical to analyzing and
interpreting data from products and the factory. As a customer, we have
already seen the benefits of their PLM platform in action,” said Steve
Taub, Managing Director, Advanced Manufacturing & Enterprise at GE
Ventures.
About Silver Lake Kraftwerk
Silver Lake Kraftwerk is part of Silver Lake, the global leader in
technology investing with about $39 billion in combined assets under
management and committed capital and a team of approximately 100 investment
and value creation professionals located around the world. Silver Lake
Kraftwerk provides growth capital to technology and tech-enabled businesses
driving efficiency across the operations, energy, and resources industries.
The fund targets companies globally that leverage technology and business
model innovation across a number of sectors, such as transportation,
logistics, manufacturing, oil and gas, power generation and transmission,
energy efficiency, waste, water, and agriculture, among others. For more
information about Silver Lake Kraftwerk and its entire portfolio, please
visit
http://www.silverlake.com.
About GE Ventures
GE Ventures identifies, scales and accelerates ideas that will help make
the world work better. Focused on the areas of software, advanced
manufacturing, energy and health care, GE Ventures combines equity
investing, new business creation, licensing and technology transfer to
deliver an innovation platform designed to drive growth for partners and
GE. For more information, visit
http://www.geventures.com, or follow on Twitter @GE_Ventures
and
LinkedIn.
About Aras
Aras enables the world’s leading manufacturers of complex, connected
products to transform their product lifecycle processes and gain a
competitive edge. Aras’ open, flexible, scalable, and upgradable PLM
platform and applications connect users in all disciplines and functions to
critical product information and processes across the extended enterprise.
Aras customers include Airbus, BAE Systems, GE, GM, Hitachi, Honda,
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and Microsoft. Visit www.aras.com and follow
us on Twitter @aras_plm and
LinkedIn.
Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their
respective owners.