LOS ALTOS, Calif. – May 21, 2024 – Simr, formerly known as UberCloud, today unveiled Simulation Operations Automation (SimOps), making best practices in computer simulations implemented by the majority of the design engineers at three of the Magnificent Seven companies available to design engineers everywhere. The company also announced that it has secured $20M in Series A funding led by Uncorrelated Ventures, with investments from BMW i Ventures and Earlybird Venture Capital.

Simr, which gives engineers a single platform for using any compute resources with any leading simulation tool, is revolutionizing how engineers design, verify, and test products by automating sophisticated simulations in the cloud. It does so while eliminating the need to specify, procure, implement, and manage complex High-Performance Computing (HPC) environments. The platform enables the implementation of SimOps best practices, boosting innovation and productivity among design engineers while enabling IT and operational control. The company is closely partnered with leading simulation platform providers, including Ansys, Siemens, and Dassault Systèmes.

“In today’s market, leading products are complex and increasingly require system-level, multiphysics simulation,” said Wim Slagter, director of partner programs at Ansys. “This approach calls for robust simulation automation tools as part of our customers’ product design and simulation environments. For more than 10 years, Simr (formerly UberCloud) has critically provided our enterprise customers with these tools using the latest HPC cloud resources, ensuring they stay on the cutting edge of innovation.”

“Simr’s approach has given it valuable insights into the challenges faced by engineers and IT teams in managing cloud simulation environments and the untapped potential for enhancing the use of cloud resources in engineering simulations,” said Steven M. Levine, PhD., Senior Director, Virtual Human Modeling at Dassault Systèmes and Executive Director, Living Heart Project. “The complexity of the HPC Cloud market can be a challenge for many, so a clear, streamlined approach like SimOps could truly be a game-changer for many.”

With the close of the new funding, Salil Deshpande, General Partner at Uncorrelated Ventures, and Baris Guzel, Partner at BMW i Ventures, join Ali Kutay, CEO and Chairman of Striim, and Roland Manger, Co-founder and Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, on the Simr board of directors.

“SimOps has the potential to revolutionize how companies design complex, breakthrough products by letting teams iterate and test their ideas in the time they were previously forced to waste waiting for simulations to be completed,” said BMW i Ventures’ Guzel. “SimOps gives engineering teams the power to explore more options faster and at lower cost. As manufacturing continues to evolve towards more digital and simulation-driven development processes, Simr is well-positioned to play a pivotal role in this transformation.”

“SimOps changes the way groundbreaking ideas become real products,” said Uncorrelated’s Deshpande. “The knowledge and best practices of the world’s largest and most innovative manufacturers become available to companies of all sizes. I’m excited to accelerate this process through an investment in Simr.”

Introducing SimOps
By enabling some of the world’s most innovative and successful manufacturing companies, including three of the seven most successful tech companies, to test and verify their product designs, Simr has derived a deep understanding of best practices for operating and automating design simulation processes. This set of practices is called Simulation Operations Automation, or, in short, SimOps.

Engineers’ ability to innovate is a function of the speed, frequency, and quality of simulations they can run. SimOps makes engineers more productive by letting them focus their time and attention on design decisions instead of managing compute resources, which accelerates the timeline to design, and test products. The total time required for simulation is significantly reduced when configuring, deploying, scaling, and running automation, which can be done by Simr in any public, private, or hybrid cloud.

Engineering-driven manufacturing companies operate in global, highly competitive, and fast-paced environments. The need to provide innovation, breakthrough products, and superior value to customers is leading to ever-more complex engineering challenges. At the same time, there is an explosion in simulation software variety and sophistication and nearly unlimited compute power in the cloud. SimOps is allowing companies to take advantage of greatly accelerated simulation quickly, securely, and reliably in ways that place them at the top of their industries.

“One can’t develop products today without HPC modeling and simulation, and anything that makes running simulations easier is always greatly welcomed by designers, engineers, and researchers,” said industry analyst Earl Joseph, CEO at Hyperion Research and Executive Director of the HPC User Forum. “Moving forward, the ability to run simulations more quickly with less complexity and friction, and without limitations on computing resources, will separate the highest-performing engineering teams and the top manufacturing companies from the rest.”

Through its SimOps offering, Simr provides a multitude of benefits:

• Increased Product Innovation and Reduced Time-to-Market: Utilizing cloud HPC enables engineers to work with large models and detailed simulations that would be too complex and time-consuming for standard workstations. This leads to the rapid development of more accurate and effective designs, increasing innovation and helping speed the delivery of products to market.
• Uninterrupted Productivity: Simr ensures a no-compromise user experience by enabling engineers to use any and all of their existing simulation platforms and workflows – including those from Ansys, Dassault, and Siemens – without any additional onboarding or configuration. This eliminates reskilling and ensures that productivity is not only uninterrupted but accelerated.
• Unmatched Security: The Simr platform’s implementation in the customer’s own cloud account enables IT teams to keep all proprietary data behind their corporate firewall – under their complete and exclusive control – while maintaining direct access to their cloud provider’s full range of security and compliance mechanisms.
• Increased Cost-Efficiency: Unlike consumption-based pricing models, Simr’s fixed, per-user pricing promotes simulation use by enabling customers to maintain direct relationships with the engineering software vendors and cloud providers of their choice. This enables them to leverage their own negotiated pricing and access these resources on an as-needed basis.

“Simr lets engineers design better products by giving them the ability to design and validate literally anything they can conceive of at previously unimaginable speed,” said Burak Yenier, Co-founder and CEO at Simr. “As demonstrated by the traction we have with the world’s top companies and the support of our investors, there is a strong need for these unique innovations. SimOps is the much-needed new engine of manufacturing simulations.”

For more information about SimOps and how design engineers everywhere can benefit from employing best practices in computer simulations developed by some of the world’s most successful companies, register here for a panel to be held June 5, 2024 featuring Peter Ungaro, former CEO at Cray Inc., Addison Snell of Intersect360 and Ed Cordin of Cambashi.

About Simr
Simr is on a mission to help manufacturers thrive by advancing SimOps, the practice of automating simulation processes to improve decision-making, innovation, efficiency, and quality in product design and engineering. Founded by engineers for engineers, Simr enables rapid product development and delivery with a versatile, high-performance platform compatible with any compute infrastructure. Furthering our commitment to making SimOps the new standard in manufacturing design, our platform allows engineers to securely design and test product concepts using existing workflows and tools, providing complete control over their simulation workflows and data. For more information, visit us at www.simr.com, LinkedIn and X.

Additional Customer and Industry Support for Simr

Borg-Warner
“Simr provides the opportunity for companies to have the much-needed agility to innovate, simulate, and design cutting-edge products for the ever-changing global market,” said Greg Collins, Senior IT Director of Engineering Systems at BorgWarner. “SimOps provides the engineering community the framework to leverage the simulation capabilities and capacity needed to be a market leader in product innovation.”

Buro Happold
“Simr has enabled us to streamline processes and enhance efficiency through its cloud-based simulation setup platform,” said Gilberto Osornio Nieto, Associate at Buro Happold, an international, integrated consultancy of engineers, designers , and advisers. “Furthermore, it has significantly expanded our capabilities, enabling us to swiftly tackle complex, time-dependent simulations involving combined physics, such as radiation and moisture content particles, with exceptional speed.”

Dehn
“Using the Simr platform allows us to accelerate our simulation by a factor of six compared to running them locally—without having to invest in additional hardware and at very bearable operating costs,” said Manfred Ferstl, Head of IT Technology Operations at DEHN, the world leader in lightning protection technology. “Thanks to this cloud-based simulation environment, DEHN is saving valuable time as well as the money it would otherwise spend on highly paid experts in research and IT operations. The research division can run simulations faster and achieve more precise results using their tried-and-true simulation solutions.”

FLSmidth
“The freedom that Simr gives us from hardware and CapEx is accelerating the realization of our MissionZero initiative by giving our engineering teams more creativity and flexibility,” said Holger Kirketerp, Head of Cloud Center of Excellence, FLSmidth, market leader in the global mining and cement industries. “Simr is critical to our delivery of the solutions that will make zero-emissions mining operations and cement plants possible by 2030.”

Ozen Engineering
“Following SimOps best practices lets our engineers do much more with the time they have by removing the need to deal with complex high-performance computing resources,” said Metin Ozen, CEO and Principal of Ozen Engineering, an Ansys Elite Channel Partner. “It puts the ability to set up, access, and use exactly the right compute resources for their simulations at their fingertips. With Simr, they are developing higher-quality products in a shorter amount of time.”

Trantor Enterprises
“Simr’s ability to accelerate design outcomes without exposing valuable intellectual property outside the customer organization is unique in this industry,” said Anurag Gupta, Principal of Trantor Enterprises, who previously served as Head of Sensor Technology for Google Nest. “It is another key differentiator that makes the platform an obvious choice for modern manufacturing.”

Report descriptions here:

Intersect360 Report

“SimOps: Automating Engineering Innovation Across Today’s Tools” addresses the transformative potential of simulation operations automation (SimOps) in modern engineering. As engineering integrates advanced computational modeling and simulation to overcome the limitations of physical testing, new technologies like IoT, AI, and cloud computing further expand these capabilities, introducing additional complexity. SimOps is positioned as a crucial enabler of these innovations, providing a structured approach to managing and automating simulation processes across industries.

CIMdata Report

The CIMdata commentary on Simr highlights the critical role of high-performance cloud-based simulation and analytics in modern product development, focusing on the increasing necessity for computer-aided engineering (CAE), big data analytics, digital twins, and AI/machine learning. Simr, previously known as UberCloud, provides a flexible HPC cloud environment that integrates seamlessly with major cloud and CAE software, enabling scalable and automated simulation workflows across public, private, or hybrid clouds. This integration supports SimOps principles by enhancing simulation-driven decision-making, automating processes, and reducing IT burdens. The report underscores the benefits of Simr in boosting productivity, fostering innovation, and ensuring control and security over digital assets with a user-friendly interface that promotes rapid adoption. Highlighting successful implementations by companies such as Buro Happold, FLSmidth, Freudenberg Technology, and 3DT Holdings, the commentary demonstrates Simr’s broad impact and alignment with SimOps best practices for improving simulation-driven decisions and operational efficiency through optimized simulation operations using automation.

Cambashi White Paper

This white paper evaluates simulation, stating it’s “highest calling is to offer fresh, earlier, more frequent, and accelerated solutions to product development”. The paper points to the fact that more simulation driven decisions can enable further strategic advantage for design-led businesses – to innovate and differentiate. Finding a solution to optimize simulation’s strategic impact is inherently complex. Affected by balancing system trade-offs (capacity vs capability vs flexibility vs cost vs impact). And the need to resolve gaps (experience, knowledge, and capability) existing in and outside the business. Simulation (in the cloud) as part of the CAE toolchain is an increasing part of impact optimization. The question has become not only “if cloud” – but increasingly “how much”, “who from” and ”why”. Determination and governance of such balances needs strong and tight collaboration between Strategy, Engineering, and IT teams. Simulation (in the cloud) has a solution value chain. Specialist Cloud Enablement solutions provide an essential middle / glue layer in this chain. Blackbox, Whitebox/Custom such as Simr and ISV Embedded variants are available. Read more in the white paper.