Mainframe workload modernization startup Mechanical Orchard raised $24 million in an early-stage funding round.
Led by Emergence Capital, the Series A round also saw participation from Industry Ventures, Spider Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Cendana Capital and Webb Investment Network. As a result of the funding round, Mechanical Orchard has been valued at $95 million.
Founded in November 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company uses AI and reverse engineering to move large enterprises off legacy systems and onto the cloud.
Its founder, Rob Mee, previously founded and headed up Pivotal Labs and also served as CEO of Pivotal Software, the latter of which was acquired by VMware for $2.7 billion in 2019.
“When it comes to moving off mainframes, CIOs and CTOs at many of the world’s largest organizations simply don’t want to entertain the idea of a failed transition on their watch,” said Mee. “Our mission is to help them with a safe, efficient, and reliable way forward, which will radically transform their business for good.”
He added: “I am immensely proud of our solution, which is the culmination of a lot of hard work and ingenuity from some very smart minds, and this funding is a big step closer to achieving our ambition.”
According to Mechanical Orchard, mainframe reliance remains one of the biggest unsolved IT challenges globally, with 71 percent of the Fortune 500 still relying on mainframe systems.
