4 on a Tuesday: Stratasys and AspenTech acquire, Samp gets funding, SAP reports

It’s only Tuesday, and it’s already been quite a week. Here, in no particular order, are newsy bits that I think are interesting:

Stratasys, the 3D printer company and owner of GrabCAD, has acquired Riven, makers of quality assurance software. Riven’s cloud-based solution will be integrated into GrabCAD’s Additive Manufacturing Platform. Riven makes Warp Adaptive Modeling, which inspects, diagnoses, and can automatically correct deviations between a CAD model and the actual 3D printed parts. Stratasys says this “removes a potentially significant bottleneck in the parts production process that will help Stratasys customers scale adoption of additive manufacturing.” The deal is already done, and no terms were announced. This combo is a significant step forward because quality has been a huge issue since the start of the additive craze. We’re just now getting to the hardware-in-the-loop phase of its development, where we can readily compare the as-designed and as-built and course correct during printing. That’s exciting.

AspenTech acquired inmation Software, makers of industrial real-time information management solutions. AspenTech says this acquisition will help “capital-intensive organizations integrate, manage, and contextualize their industrial data to make critical business decisions.” inmation will be added into AspenTech’s industrial data and connectivity business unit. The combined offering furthers the company’s position as an industrial software powerhouse driving digital transformation and supporting our customers’ sustainability and profitability goals. Another done deal, no terms. This one is interesting, too — you may recall that Emerson just bought a controlling interest in AspenTech by contributing $6 billion cash and two software businesses (Emerson OSI and Geological Simulation Software) to a new AspenTech. Part of the stated logic for that deal was to speed up the build-out AspenTech’s Asset Performance Management offering, one part of which is the (Artificial Intelligence of Things) AIoT Hub. inmation enables users to aggregate data from many operating facilities into a centralized repository from which it can be served for various types of analysis. We can’t know if this deal would have closed without Emerson’s cash and backing, but it probably helped.

Samp, a nifty French start-up I’ve been following, recently announced that it closed a €4m funding round from French and German investment funds. Samp combines 3D scan processing with CAD with artificial intelligence to create an accurate digital twin of a building or industrial site with little human intervention. Samp calls this “shared reality for industrial sites,” accessible to all stakeholders via a web portal and continuously updated as a project moves ahead. Samp plans to use the funds it just raised to expand outside of France. This is good news for Samp, but also in general: Not all venture investment has stalled!

Finally, earnings are in full swing. This morning, SAP reported Q3 2022 revenue of €7.8 billion, up 15% and up 5% in constant currencies (cc). Of note for our little part of the software world, cloud and software revenue was €6.7 billion, up 14% (up 5% cc) — of which €3.3 billion was cloud-related, up 28% (up 25% cc). Many investors look at cloud backlog as a leading indicator of interest in migrating to the cloud; that backlog grew an impressive 26% cc. One other noteworthy nugget: the backlog for SAP’s S/4HANA (its primary, newest ERP offering) is up 108% (up 90% cc), which leads many to believe that SAP so far looks to be able to weather any macro-economic recessionary shocks that may be coming. Not all is rosy, though, as SAP’s net profit and earnings per share fell because of tax changes and other factors not related directly to operations. Finally, SAP left its guidance alone, expecting €11.55 billion to €11.85 billion in cloud revenue for the year (up 23% to 26% cc) and somewhere around €25.25 billion in combined cloud and software revenue (up 4% to 6% cc) for the year. What does that mean for our PLMish world? That there’s caution but not yet a pullback in spending. That’s good news.

More earnings coming!