5 on a Tuesday: Hexagon, Siemens + Dotmatics, Nano + Desktop, Rescale, Chinese/Hungarian BIM — oh my

There is a LOT going on, so it’s time for a catch up.

Earnings season is about to start again, and we’ve already had one early report: Hexagon pre-announced Q1 results that missed expectations on both revenue growth and margins. (Recall that Hexagon doesn’t issue guidance, but that doesn’t stop investors from making predictions that the company has to respond to.) Hexagon said it saw “a good start to the year” but then “weaker than expected financial performance in March, which is the most significant month in the quarter for revenues. Growth in the key NAFTA and China markets declined in the last two weeks of March, with economic uncertainty impacting deliveries. Recurring revenues grew strongly during the quarter, but this was more than offset by weakness in sensor sales. The decline in sensor volumes in March, coupled with a [EU 6 million] drag from currency transaction effects, had a negative short-term impact on EBIT1 margins.” We could read into this uncertainty around tariffs on hardware goods (which is what sensors are). It appears that software sales weren’t affected much, but we don’t know for sure. Hexagon said its preliminary analysis shows revenue of about EU1,322.8 million in Q1 2025, up 2% as reported but flat in organic terms. “The management team is closely monitoring the current uncertainty in end markets, and if demand continues to be impacted actions will be taken to address the cost base of the group accordingly.” We’ll know more on 30 April when Hexagon announces the final results.

What does that mean, in bigger terms? Everyone I’ve talked to is uncertain about the future. Will manufacturers be able to get components? At all? At what price? What will consumers (at all level, industrial and consumer) be spending money on? Will they be spending? I wouldn’t be surprised if many companies withdraw any forecasts they’ve made and do their best to adjust to all of the changes that are swirling around.

But not all news is uncertain or gloomy. A lot of companies are investing to grow in new directions. 

After Siemens announced that it would acquire Dotmatics, the company released a presentation with a bit more about the deal. In essence, Siemens says it is creating an “AI-powered research-to-production digital thread in Life Sciences.” This, the company says, “accelerates customer’s innovation and productivity through enabling multimodal drug-discovery and contextualizing data for in-silico simulation and AI” — but here’s the truly valuable part of the acquisition rationale: Customers will be able to “[Utilize] Siemens’ manufacturing expertise and foundational technologies to create a first of its kind end-to-end digital thread for the Life Sciences and other process industries”. 

Dotmatics is expected to have total revenue of $310 million in FY 2025 (up 15% of FY 2024), $300 million in ARR, and, crucially, Dotmatics is profitable, with margins above Siemens’ Digital Industries target range. And in case you’ve forgotten, Siemens is paying $5.1 billion for Dotmatics, an EBITDA multiple of ~39x, which the company says is “in line with precedent transactions for premium software assets.” The deal is expected to close in the first half of Siemens fiscal 2026 (so, by March 2026).

A quick recap: Siemens is acquiring Altair for $10 billion and Dotmatics for $5.1 billion — all within a year or so. That’s a lot to spend and a lot to integrate. Software in 2025 is a very different world, of course, but this reminds me of what Dassault Systèmes did in purchasing HKS/Abaqus (for $413 million in 2005) and Medidata ($5.8 billion in 2019). Both significantly added to the company’s portfolio and reach into new industries.

After receiving all necessary regulatory approvals, Nano Dimension finally closed its on-again, off-again acquisition of Desktop Metal for $179.3 million. In the press release, Chairman of Nano Dimension Ofir Baharav said, “We are excited about the ability to offer leading customers more innovative technologies. Our new leadership group is squarely focused on implementing necessary measures to achieve a sustainable business model that will allow us to successfully create value for all stakeholders. We will make clear-eyed, objective assessments of our combined operations, identifying immediate cost synergies, and strategically realigning resources toward our highest-potential product lines.” If you’re just tuning in, Nano Dimension changed leadership in late 2024; it has been reviewing its strategy and making changes to lower costs in its core business. We’ll have to see what happens next.

Rescale, the ​cloud platform for high-performance computing CAE and AI/ML-driven design exploration, announced that it raised $115 million in a Series D round of financing, adding to the $150 million or so it had already raised from investors including Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Paul Graham, and Peter Thiel. The Series D round included participation from Applied Ventures, Atika Capital, Foxconn, Hanwha Asset Management Deeptech Venture Fund, Hitachi Ventures, NEC Orchestrating Future Fund, NVIDIA, Prosperity7, SineWave Ventures, Translink Capital, University of Michigan, and Y Combinator. It’s an impressive list of backers. According to the announcement, Rescale has around $75 million in annual revenue, “achieving a 592% revenue increase over three years.” Rescale says it will use the investment to “accelerate the delivery of its roadmap including: Expanding the range of new workflows and computing technologies available to its customers; growing its library of over 1,250 applications and global network of more than 500 cloud datacenters with its technology partners …; establishing a unified system for managing data and workflows across modeling and simulation processes, combined with AI-based tools for search, tagging, and automation; enhancing enterprise security and compliance features, including new authorizations for government and defense clients; helping industrial businesses adopt AI-driven engineering tools that simplify processes, automate tasks, and speed up design validation.” Read more here: https://rescale.com/news/rescale-secures-115-million-to-accelerate-innovation-with-ai-driven-digital-engineering/

Gstarsoft, a Chinese company I don’t write about often enough, acquired CadLine, a Hungarian company specializing in Building Information Modeling software development. Gstarsoft makes GstarCAD for mechanical and architectural applications; CadLine is, I believe, its first foray into actual BIM. CadLine’s ARCHLine.XP (according to Gstarsoft) “supports users from conceptual design to creating detailed 3D models and documents, featuring flexibility and advanced rendering technology to provide immersive presentation experiences. ARCHLine.XP is available worldwide in 14 languages.” Further, “Gstarsoft is highly confident about the prospects of expanding into the European and global BIM markets. The company’s CEO, Xiang Lu, stated: “This collaboration will fully integrate the core strengths of both parties, continuously enhancing product competitiveness and innovation. Moving forward, Gstarsoft will leverage its proprietary BIM technology platform to respond more agilely to market demands, deepen product innovation, and provide global customers with more efficient digital tools for design and construction.“

Optimism and caution in one blog post — we really DO live in interesting times.