EXCLUSIVE: Flow Engineering raises $23M Series A led by Sequoia to power the new era of hardware

Seventeen years later, Singh still can’t talk about the details of this work (at least not to a reporter). But the deal began a poignant episode in his life.

“It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was enough that I thought I had sold out,” said Singh, who grew up in London. “I was 14 years old and I had to decide what I wanted to do with my life. So, every day for two weeks, I thought about it deeply. I didn’t do anything else. And I basically came to a set of conclusions that have guided my life ever since: There are two worlds, one you’re born into, and one you’re not born into. The delta between the two, the positive difference, is how much good you’ve done as a human being — and you want to maximize that.”

Perhaps this brings to mind the vision of an exceptionally serious Englishman, so it’s worth being clear: in conversation, Singh seems as edgy and upbeat as his conclusion suggests. And while the thought-provoking triumph of entrepreneurship is a story I’ve heard before, I’ve never heard it from someone who was so young at the time. Singh eventually became a mechanical engineer and began his career at Giants Like BAE Systems and baby. Very quickly, he had a strong sense that hardware engineering was at a moment of intense evolution, where the processes of the past collided with a fast-encroaching future.

“I wanted to design and invent things, and what I saw in industry is that the tools, processes and workflows — the basic approach to how you design hardware — have basically not changed since the Space Race,” Singh said. luck. “But the products we build have become dramatically more complex. Software now essentially drives every element in every component. There was a disconnect between the products we were designing and the approach to design.”

Singh founded the startup Flow Engineering in 2023, building on a tool he had previously developed to help design rocket engines. Today, Flow helps companies like Rivian, Joby Aviation, Astranis, and Radiant solve complex engineering challenges and facilitate rapid, iterative device development. At the heart of the Flow platform is the idea that requirements—the well-defined needs that a physical hardware product must meet as it is built—should be a “living, breathing nervous system” that evolves, not something static.

The startup has now raised a $23 million Series A, led by Sequoia. luck I learned exclusively. Odyssey Ventures, Unity’s David Helgason, and Stripe’s Patrick and John Collison also participated in the round. In a stunning vote of confidence, Sequoia Managing Partner and Host Roelof Botha will join Flow’s Board of Directors. For Botha, flow is at the forefront of a radical and broad shift: hardware is not separate from software at this point, but is increasingly defined by its intersection with software. Thanks to internal transportation trends, technological change, and sheer geopolitical necessity, there is now a growing ecosystem of devices across businesses, processes, and disciplines. There is a parallel with the evolution of software, which has moved from vertically integrated companies to horizontal ecosystems, where developers build their own tools to accelerate their most critical projects.

“The software industry has benefited, because the software developers themselves have built their own tools,” Botha said. “Like GitHub, which is a great tool for software developers, built by software developers.” As hardware and software development merge, Botha said new companies like Flow and Nominal (another hardware engineering-focused platform backed by Sequoia) are in a unique position as they emerge and gain traction.

As we head into the final months of 2025, relations between the U.S. and China have become tense, and there is an overwhelming sense that when it comes to manufacturing capabilities, China is outpacing the U.S. “It’s effectively a new space race, and China is in first place,” Singh said. “If you look at the pace of innovation and the pace of growth, they are actually on a higher trajectory than the US” (some estimates suggest that by 2030 China could be responsible for 45% of global manufacturing, while the US share drops to 11%).

The question then: Is it over? Did China simply win? “I think the ace we have up our sleeve is safety,” Singh said. “I’m going to ride the Archer. I’m going to ride the Falcon 9. I’m not going to ride the Chinese rocket,” he said, referring to the US-made Archer electric air taxi and SpaceX’s reusable rocket.

For Singh, the risks of this work are existential and tied to the promise he made to himself as a teenager about how he would spend his life.

“If we succeed, our impact on humanity is that we will get to Mars faster,” Singh said. “We’re removing carbon from the atmosphere faster. The most important problems for humanity right now are the problems of the physical world. It’s not just about AI. AI has to be in the real world to be able to make an impact — and all of that will be built on flow.”

see you tomorrow,

Allie Garfinkel
tenth: @agarfinks
Email: [email protected]
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Project deals

– Foretellsa marketing operating system based in Stockholm, Sweden, has raised $6.6 million in seed funding. Speed ​​of light Take risks Partners He led the tour and joined him the prison, footnoteAnd angel investors.

– strawberryan AI-powered full browser based in San Francisco, has raised $6 million in funding. general Catalyst and IQT Projects He led the tour and joined him lovable, Sobabasand Hugging face.

– Bimleya Chicago, Illinois-based system designed to serve as a layer connecting product, commerce and customer relationship management functions, has raised $2.3 million in funding. High alpha He led the tour.

Private equity

– recognize acquired a majority stake in Security risk consultantsa cybersecurity services company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Financial terms were not disclosed.

the people

– GTCRhas upgraded its private equity team and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois atmosphere Rubino To the Chief Technology Officer, Kirk Smith and Jeffrey Trisley To the General Manager, W David especially, son Harvey, Amanda Poirot, Kate Save us, Melissa Ciochi, Rene Tobiassenand U Ten Zeng Promoted to the rank of director.