Manufacturing aftersales tech provider, Partful, has received £5m in funding to automate its 3D aftersales SaaS platform.
The investment has been led by Northern Gritstone, with participation from Par Equity and US-based Blumberg Capital.
The funding will propel the automation of Partful’s platform and accelerate the company’s growth within the $640bn aftermarket sector.
The platform gives users access to interactive 3D models that explode to reveal each product’s individual components – making it easier for the customers and dealers of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to identify and order the components they need, and access the work instructions needed to fit them.
With the introduction of automation, OEMs are being empowered to take complete control of this process. The ability to self-serve means that users can simply upload their data – CAD files, Bill of Materials as well as their own tribal knowledge – to create a parts catalog fit for aftersales purposes.
As well as making it even easier for OEMs to create interactive documents, automation also saves significant amounts of time. The enhanced platform makes it possible to create a 3D parts catalog in hours, rather than weeks.
Sam Burgess, CEO and co-founder of Partful said: ‘‘Developing the next iteration of our platform is an important step in helping OEMs to overcome these challenges. Having the backing of Northern Gritstone, Par Equity and Blumberg Capital is vital and we are thrilled to have their backing as we help OEMs support customers, eradicate costly order errors and maximise revenues.’’
Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone, added: “Northern Gritstone is delighted to support Partful. This growing Manchester-based tech company has already won large OEM customers thanks to its technology and is set to create more jobs in its North of England team.”
Since its initial seed funding investment round in January 2022, Partful has secured a total sum of £11.2M. The business counts Maeving, Lear, Kolpak, Triangle Tube & Ideal Heating and Allett Mowers among its customer base.
Jay Maiden, director of service at Kolpak, said: “It’s made not only our customers’ jobs easier, but it’s also helped my internal team and the Part CSRs. I had no idea how useful it would be internally. It’s not just in the parts, we’ve got engineers that are logged in and they look at it to see the model. I know we’ve only just started touching the surface of what it can do for us.”
