NEOCAD exceeds €1.1 million in funding between private capital and public financing.

Invitalia supports AI for CAD

Following its €550,000 equity round, NEOCAD secures Smart&Start Italia financing from Invitalia. Private capital and public financing together exceed €1.1 million.

Legnano (MI), 13 July 2026 — NEOCAD, an Italian AI startup for mechanical design, has closed a Follow-On equity round of €550,000 and secured financing of up to €579,296 under the Smart&Start Italia programme, managed by Invitalia on behalf of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy dedicated to innovative startups.

Private capital and public financing together exceed €1.1 million.

Private capital and public financing
The equity round includes €300,000 from Habitech/HabiSmart and €250,000 from 40Jemz Ventures. Invitalia has also admitted NEOCAD to Smart&Start Italia. “This result represents much more than an important financial milestone. For a startup like ours, it means seeing the validity of the technology we are developing recognized by two different but equally strategic stakeholders. On one hand, private investors who have chosen to believe in our entrepreneurial vision; on the other, Invitalia, which through Smart&Start has recognized the innovative and industrial potential of our project. This dual validation gives us further confidence and allows us to accelerate the development of our platform, continuing to invest in research, skills, and innovation to bring artificial intelligence to the center of mechanical design “, comments Luca Licciulli, Founder and CEO of NEOCAD.

The project financed by Smart&Start
The project “NEOCAD: AI Agent for 3D CAD ideation and design in mechanical engineering,” involves a €724,120 investment, with up to 80% covered by public financing. The 24-month plan supports platform research and development, technical team growth, marketing and communications.

Technology and market development
Following its work with Microsoft for Startups, NVIDIA Inception, AWS Activate and INNOVIT San Francisco, NEOCAD announced the filing of a patent application related to its closed-loop artificial intelligence architecture, designed to search, modify and generate CAD models within design environments. The application is pending grant. Funding will support the technology roadmap and growth in Italy and Europe, aiming to make better use of CAD archives and reduce product development time.

About NEOCAD
Founded in late 2024, NEOCAD develops generative AI software for CAD design, available in Cloud or On-Premise deployments. The platform centralises and indexes models and technical know-how in a queryable knowledge base. It helps manufacturing, design and R&D teams find existing solutions, simulate alternatives and support technical decisions, reducing repetitive tasks and duplication.