• Series B funding round led by GV (Google Ventures)
• Funding an endorsement of the company’s novel approach and caliber of its team to solve the most complex and pressing IT challenge
• Funds will be used to scale the R&D program, including advancing the application of AI to enhance the speed and efficiency of transitions
• Opportune market timing as the existential threat posed by legacy software to the world’s largest organizations grows

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Tuesday 6 August, San Francisco, CA - Mechanical Orchard, the technology business reinventing the software that runs the world, today announces it has raised $50 million in a Series B funding round led by GV.

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Mechanical Orchard has built groundbreaking technology to transition the world’s largest organizations away from inflexible legacy IT systems to modern, cloud-based applications. The Company de-risks the modernization process by using AI-enhanced tooling and an iterative approach centered on reverse-engineering a cloud-based copy of the living, breathing systems. Because each iteration is delivered as working software into the production environment, customers benefit from continuous proof that the migration is working—and radically improves its speed and quality.

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Over-reliance on legacy software persists as a critical, unresolved IT challenge worldwide: $13 trillion of the US economy and a minimum of 71% of the Fortune 500 still depend on aging mainframe systems. The costs of ignoring this issue grow daily. In the US alone, $1.52 trillion is the estimated cost to the economy which can be attributed to poor-quality software. Board demands for improved security to comply with government regulations and the deployment of AI to improve efficiency are areas which remain hindered until this is solved. Yet, the complexity, scale and risk associated with tackling the problem have contributed to as many as 75% of modernization projects failing to reach completion.

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Founded in October 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, CA, the Company boasts an impressive team of technology industry heavyweights. Founder and CEO, Rob Mee, founded the agile software development consulting firm, Pivotal Labs. COO, Matthew Work, has held many leadership titles in global technology companies including Cognizant and Amazon.com. In April, the Leadership team was bolstered by the addition of ex-VMWare executive, Edward Hieatt, as Chief Customer Officer. The team now totals 80+ with an international presence in the UK, Ireland, Italy, and Germany.

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Commenting on the announcement, Rob Mee, Mechanical Orchard CEO, said, “The need to modernize aging systems is hardly a lightbulb moment for Enterprise CIOs. But, as the world spins ever faster, the stakes are even higher. These CIOs are feeling the heat to put away the band-aids and find solutions they can trust to carry out a safe and sustainable transition. Our incremental approach, demonstrating continuous progress throughout, eliminates the necessity for an unwarranted leap of faith. This investment underscores the power of our method.”

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Crystal Huang, General Partner at GV, added, “The Mechanical Orchard team has impressed us deeply with their AI-powered approach to enterprise application and infrastructure modernization. They exemplify qualities that characterize our best partnerships: a strong understanding of complex enterprise IT needs, extensive experience managing and scaling high-performing teams, an exciting roadmap, and a near-limitless market opportunity. We are thrilled they chose to partner with GV for the journey ahead.”