Montréal-based Flojoy has raised $1.7 million CAD ($1.3 million USD) all-equity and all-primary in seed funding to develop its no-code software that enables industrial companies to automate their testing processes.
Flybridge Capital Partners, Boreal Ventures, and BDC Capital participated in the round, which closed on July 21 Boreal managing partner David Charbonneau is joining Flojoy’s board.
According to Flojoy, this investment will be used to hire more engineers as it builds out its platform.
“Floyjoy expands on the same traits that made Plotly a success.”
– David Charbonneau, Boreal Ventures
Founded in 2023, Flojoy’s mission is to modernize test, measurement, and control (TMC) processes for heavy industries through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and no-code, Python-based software. It calls its visual programming platform, Flojoy Studio, a drop-in replacement for engineering software such as LabVIEW, Simulink, RapidMiner, and Alteryx.
Flojoy describes TMC and AI as “natural bedfellows” when it comes to data. One hypothetical example of this synergy includes microscopes with automatic-object identification.
As it has secured a major customer in an undisclosed American electric aircraft manufacturer, Flojoy said it looks to help more companies in heavy industries, and is working on marketing its services to firms like Hitachi, Ford, Boeing, SpaceX, Intel, and Medtronics.
Flojoy is the brainchild of repeat entrepreneur Jack Parmer. He previously co-founded Plotly, an interactive data-visualization software for scientists who work with the Python and R programming languages.
Plotly was created to help modernize numerical computing by making data visualization free, interactive, well-documented, and “more complete” in capabilities compared to other scientific charting software, according to the startup.
RELATED: Plotly raises $5.5 million Series A from Rho Ventures, MHS Capital, Real Ventures, others
Jack Parmer co-founded Plotly with his brother Chris Parmer, as well as Matthew Sundquist and Alex Johnson, in 2013. Half of Plotly’s co-founders have left, including Sundquist who departed in 2015 as well as Jack, who stepped down as Plotly’s CEO in 2022 and sold his stake.
It appears that Plotly has yet to appoint a new CEO, while it continues to be led by its remaining founding team, comprising Parmer and Johnson.
“With Plotly, Jack has shown his ability to foresee fundamental trends in the open-source community, hire world-class talent, and build what is now a pillar in the Python community,” said Charbonneau.
“Floyjoy expands on the same traits that made Plotly a success, in what we believe is a market ripe for innovation,” he added.
Parmer, who was most recently an executive consultant with os.studio, told BetaKit that he has transitioned his executive-consulting clients to Flojoy where appropriate, and has closed os.studio to operate Flojoy full-time.
Parmer added that Flojoy hopes to hire up to 10 hardware and robotics Python engineers in Canada over the next year.
Featured image courtesy Flojoy.