St. John’s, Nfld.-based CoLab Software is expediting the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) tool for its engineering design collaboration and communications platform after receiving $5.6 million in financial support from an industry partnership with ExxonMobil.
“Hebron and Hibernia see this project as building foundational capabilities in artificial intelligence and software development in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
Nicholas Maccallum
The funding comes from a partnership between CoLab and the Hibernia and Hebron projects, oil rigs off the coast of St. John’s that are jointly owned by major oil companies including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Suncor. ExxonMobil operates Hebron and holds the largest stake in the company operating Hibernia.
The partnership was formally struck in December 2023, CoLab chief strategy officer Taylor Young told BetaKit in an email statement, and it includes subscriptions to CoLab’s software and funds for research and development work.
The funding supports around 60,000 hours of additional local software development to expedite the creation of its new ReviewAI product, CoLab said in a statement. ReviewAI is a new tool for its platform that aims to help inform engineers decisions and automate routine tasks and administrative work. CoLab added that it has hired 17 new full-time roles at its headquarters in St. John’s and secured another undisclosed Fortune 50 partnership since the financial contribution closed.
“Hebron … and Hibernia … see this project as building foundational capabilities in artificial intelligence and software development in Newfoundland and Labrador,” ExxonMobil Canada research and development manager Nicholas Maccallum said in a statement. “It is advancing the global reach of a local software company to provide a competitive market solution for collaborative design workflows.”
Scott Humber, a senior manager with Hebron engineering service contractor Aker Solutions, said in a statement that they completed more than 2,900 design reviews with CoLab’s software in 2024, cutting their design review cycles from weeks to days.
RELATED: CoLab raises $28.6-million CAD Series B to grow its team and incorporate AI
Co-founded in 2017 by CEO Adam Keating and CTO Jeremy Andrews, CoLab’s tool allows 2D and 3D computer-aided design files to be uploaded into the cloud and edited by multiple users. Engineering teams can send their designs for review where others can leave feedback and comments for discussion. The tool also captures analytics on the average time taken to complete reviews, address feedback, and common issues in the review process.
CoLab said the research and development funding from the partnership will allow it to accelerate development in the machine learning algorithms that automatically identify similar design files, generative AI to help surface lessons learned or highlights from past reviews, new ways to view 3D engineering data, and enterprise security and compliance controls.
The initial scope of the foundational ReviewAI work for the project planned to take 24 months and is set to complete by 2026, Young said, adding that CoLab will continue to work on expanded parts of ReviewAI internally and alongside its industry partners.
Last May, CoLab secured $21 million USD (then $28.6 million CAD) in Series B funding to develop the AI capabilities of its platform—including ReviewAI—and expand its engineering teams, committing to bring its total headcount from 86 to 125 by the end of 2024. Young told BetaKit that CoLab currently has 131 employees.
CoLab was the first company from Atlantic Canada to be accepted into the Y Combinator accelerator program, immediately raising a $2.7-million-CAD seed round after the accelerator’s Demo Day in 2019, and a $17-million USD (then $21-million CAD) Series A round in October 2021 to further expand its sales team.
Feature image courtesy CoLab via LinkedIn.