Tempo Automation Expands Team and Celebrates Momentum in 2018

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Tempo Automation announces key milestones at year-end, highlighting company growth, expansion in key markets, and its mission to transform the way technology manufacturers bring new products to market by reaching new levels of speed, precision, and innovation.

Printed circuit board assemblies (PCBA) are at the center of the electronics universe, enabling new technology, from autonomous vehicles to space launch systems and wearable medical devices. As technology companies compete to bring ground-breaking inventions to market quickly and gain first-mover advantage, they seek to reduce the time from concept to prototype to product launch.

Founded in 2013, Tempo Automation creates factory automation software and deploys it in its own state-of-the-art PCBA plant to help leading companies in the aerospace, medical technology, and automotive industries innovate more quickly. With its proprietary software driving Tempo’s concept of the “digital thread,” connecting customer engagement, order processing, parts sourcing, factory operations, and shipment of finished PCB assemblies, the company can build and deliver high complexity printed circuit board assemblies in days instead of the weeks that customers are accustomed to waiting. The Tempo platform is also the first in the industry to provide a real-time order status feature that allows customers to see exactly where in the manufacturing process their PCBA are at any time, delivering a level of transparency and predictability not previously possible.

“We are very proud of what we have accomplished this year. Tempo Automation’s goal is to transform the PCB assembly industry with a software-centric approach. This software helps us to become the fastest, most reliable PCBA prototyping partner to electrical engineers for their high complexity designs,” said Jeff McAlvay, Tempo Automation’s CEO. “2018 has been a big year for us. Having maxed out the capacity of our previous factory, we’ve moved into a factory with twice the capacity to keep up with customer demand. To further accelerate the introduction of software to electronics manufacturing, we’ve tripled the size of our software team. In 2019, we’re looking forward to continued expansion in our key vertical markets and the release of a number of software products that further increase the speed with which electrical engineers can bring their high complexity designs to market.

The company has embarked on an ambitious growth strategy focused on expanding its footprint in customers working on high complexity designs with a growing team and a new smart factory. Tempo Automation milestones achieved in 2018 include:

Opened new 42,000 square foot automated smart factory in San Francisco’s Design District, doubling production capacity Tempo Automation opened a new factory in August 2018, offering double the production capacity of their previous facility and adding more corporate office space to accommodate its growing software, sales, and marketing teams.

Delivered major advances in the company’s proprietary automation software Tempo’s proprietary software creates an unbroken digital thread from design to delivery, with automation providing the speed, reliability, and transparency innovators in aerospace, automotive, medical technology, and other industries require in competitive markets.

Among many significant developments in 2018:

The Tempo Order Tracker provides customers with real-time visibility into the progress of their board build throughout the manufacturing process. At each stage, the Order Tracker automatically displays status updates—from initial order, through the SMT and inspection processes on the factory floor, to shipment.

Tempo’s Automatic Pick and Place Machine Programming software yields faster PCB assembly and on-time delivery.

Tempo’s Automated Optical Inspection Auto-Program Generation software has furthered Tempo’s efforts to deliver high complexity designs at unparalleled quality and speed.

Achieved customer expansion across high-growth market verticals, including aerospace and defense, medical technology, and autonomous and electric vehicles Over the past 12 months, Tempo Automation has become the manufacturing vendor for clients across emerging, high-growth markets that are crucial to development of future technologies and solutions, including a 74% increase in revenue in the aerospace and defense market and a 73% increase in revenue in the medical device and technology market.

Today, Tempo Automation serves four of the top 10 largest medical device companies in the world, two of the leading 10 aerospace, aviation, and defense firms, and two of the top 10 satellite manufacturers in the global space market.

New executive leadership hires

In 2018, Tempo welcomed four new executive leadership hires to support company growth, including:

VP of Sales, Sudeep Goswami, who brings over 20 years of software and technology product sales and business experience at companies, including Cumulus Networks and Cisco.

VP of Marketing, Brady Bruce, who has served as CMO for more than 25 years at technology brands, including InFocus Corporation, Jupiter Systems, and Radius.

VP of Finance, Gerardo Adame, who joins with 15 years of financial planning, analysis, and corporate accounting experience at companies, including Endless, Inc., The Climate Corporation, and Monsanto.

Senior Director of Engineering, George Pang, who contributes more than 20 years of engineering leadership, previously serving at Project Include, reddit, and CircleUp, among other innovative Silicon Valley companies.

Announced $20M Series B round In 2018, Tempo Automation announced the closing of a Series B round of $20M to support continued growth and expansion, led by P72 Ventures with participation from existing investors Lux Capital, Uncork Capital, Draper Associates, Golden Seeds, and AME, as well as new investors Industry Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, and Cendana.