Cloud-based CAD startup Onshape, Inc. has raised $80 million Series D in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz that included existing investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Commonwealth Capital Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners.

Founded in 2012, Onshape claims to be the first and only full-cloud 3D CAD system that delivers design team collaboration using any web browser, phone, or tablet.

The company pitches its service against traditional desktop installed computer-aided design (CAD) packages such as Autodesk’s Inventor, Solidworks V6 and PTC Creo by bringing CAD into the cloud era by facilitating in particular the rise of remote workgroups with data management and collaboration built in at its core.

Like any good software as a service (SaaS) offering Onshape also negates the need for installations, license codes, hosting, service packs, and everything else that legacy desktop focused software models rely on, instead delivering an all in one package that not only saves time but money as well.

Onshape charges $100 per user per month, which may sound a lot upfront but compares favorably with offline software packages that can costs in excess of $5,000 per user license; notably though the company does offer a free version for use by students and educators.

“We’ve been closely following the CAD industry for a long time,” Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Peter Levine said in a statement. “The Onshape team immediately stood out, having built a robust CAD system using a cloud­based technical architecture that most had considered impossible.”

“The Onshape product is perfectly suited for an increasingly mobile workforce, which now can create and edit 3D models anywhere, on any device.”

Smart move

The only really surprising thing about what Onshape is offering is that it hasn’t been done before; it’s a smart move to disrupt an archaic space such as computer-aided design with a modern, cloud-based SaaS offering that targets in particular collaboration.

That said, Onshape still has a ways to go as the platform is still in beta testing, although be it highly successfully with 10,000 users; take that beta tag off with a finalized product and they’re literally going to own the CAD market in the space of perhaps even a few years.

Including the new round, Onshape has raised $144 million to-date over four rounds.

The company said it would use the new funding to significantly expand worldwide sales and marketing efforts and increase its R&D and strong customer support.

Image credit: Onshape.