Coherix is hiring new team members and raising tens of millions of dollars in growth capital to help it reach the next level.
The Ann Arbor-based firm creates high-speed, high-definition 3D visualization and inspection software designed to improve the management of manufacturing processes. Its high-tech optical-based measurement and inspection products help find efficiencies in the automotive and semiconductor industries.
The seven-year-old start-up now employs about 50 team members and a few interns after adding 15 people over the last year. The company has also been raising a round of growth capital to help fund its latest expansion, most of which appears to take place overseas.
"Over 70 percent of our advanced manufacturing work goes to Asia," says Dwight Carlson, chairman & CEO of
Coherix. "It will only increase over time. That tells you a lot right there."
Most of the capital Coherix has raised comes from Asian funders focused on advanced manufacturing. Carlson says most of his experience with U.S. investors reveals they are more digital-tech oriented while manufacturing is put on the back burner. Does that mean Ann Arbor is in danger of losing Coherix? Carlson puts it this way: "Coherix China will be much bigger than Coherix Ann Arbor."
"Asia is interested in manufacturing," Carlson says. "From my perspective America is not. How are you going to be globally competitive if you don't?"
Source: Dwight Carlson, chairman & CEO of Coherix
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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