A technology startup created in May 2022 by Will Roper, former U.S. Air Force acquisition chief and a three-time Wash100 awardee, has come out of stealth mode and is aiming to bring a digital approach into technology projects.
Istari raised $13 million in a seed round from investors such as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and developed a collaboration platform offering to support customers in digital engineering work.
“Will and the Istari team are bringing internet-type usability to models and simulations,” Schmidt said in a statement released Monday. “This unlocks the possibility of software-like agility for future physical systems.”
The startup is recruiting staff and preparing to launch major projects in 2023. The company has booked nine contracts with government and commercial clients since its launch.
“At Istari, we’re enabling all technology to be created – and continually perfected – digitally. Software ate the world, and now hardware can too via the magic of collaborative models,” said Roper.
“We can design things, test things – in general, learn things – faster, cheaper, and greener than the physical universe allows,” he added.
Roper co-founded Istari with Chris Benson, a digital engineering specialist who serves as the startup’s chief technology officer.
