Flow Engineering's $23M Series A Fuels Hardware Revolution Led by Sequoia

The Genesis of Flow Engineering

At just 14 years old, Pari Singh earned enough money to trigger an existential crisis. Seventeen years later, Singh remains tight-lipped about the details of that early business venture, but it sparked a pivotal moment in his life.

"It wasn't a lot of money, but enough that I thought I'd sold out," recalled Singh, who grew up in London. "I was 14 and I had to work out what I wanted to do with my life. So, every day for two weeks, I thought about it really deeply. I did nothing else. And I basically came to a set of conclusions that have driven my life ever since: There are two universes, one in which you're born, and one in which you're not. The delta between the two, the positive difference, is how much good you've done as a human—and you want to maximize that."

Despite the profound nature of this realization, Singh is remarkably effervescent and optimistic in conversation. His journey led him to become a mechanical engineer, working at industry giants like BAE Systems and BP. Early in his career, he recognized that hardware engineering was undergoing a dramatic transformation, with traditional processes clashing with an accelerating future.

"I wanted to design and invent stuff, and what I saw in the industry was that the tools, processes, and workflows—the fundamental approach to how we design hardware—haven't fundamentally changed since the space race," Singh explained. "But the products we're building have gotten massively more complex. Software now basically drives every element of every component. And there was a disconnect between the products we were designing and the approach to design."

Building the Future of Hardware Design

In 2023, Singh founded Flow Engineering, building upon a tool he had previously developed for designing rocket engines. Today, Flow assists companies like Rivian, Joby Aviation, Astranis, and Radiant in tackling complex engineering challenges and enabling agile, iterative hardware development. Central to Flow's platform is the concept that requirements—the precise needs a physical hardware product must meet during construction—should function as a "living, breathing nervous system" that evolves, rather than remaining static.

Major Funding and Strategic Backing

Flow Engineering has secured a $23 million Series A funding round, led by Sequoia, with participation from Odyssey Ventures, Unity's David Helgason, and Stripe's Patrick and John Collison. In a significant endorsement, Sequoia managing partner Roelof Botha will join Flow's board. Botha views Flow as a leader in a broader shift where hardware is no longer separate from software but is increasingly defined by their intersection.

Driven by onshoring trends, technological advancements, and geopolitical necessities, a burgeoning hardware ecosystem is emerging, mirroring the evolution of software from vertically integrated companies to horizontal ecosystems. "The software industry benefited because it was software developers themselves that built their own tools," Botha noted. "Like GitHub, a great tool for software developers, built by software developers." As hardware and software development converge, companies like Flow and Nominal (another Sequoia-backed platform) are uniquely positioned to gain traction.

The Global Hardware Race

As 2025 draws to a close, tensions in U.S.-China relations highlight a competitive landscape in manufacturing. Singh pointed out, "It's effectively a new space race, and China is in pole position. If you look at the pace of innovation and the pace of growth, they're actually at a higher trajectory than the U.S." Estimates suggest that by 2030, China could account for 45% of global manufacturing, while the U.S. drops to 11%.

Is the race already lost? Singh believes the U.S. holds a critical advantage: "I think the ace we have up our sleeve is safety. I'd get in an Archer. I would get on a Falcon 9. I would not get on China's rocket," he said, referencing U.S.-made electric air taxi Archer and SpaceX's reusable rocket.

The Existential Mission

For Singh, the mission of Flow Engineering ties back to his teenage commitment to maximizing his positive impact on humanity. "If we are successful, our impact to humanity is that we get to Mars faster," he asserted. "We decarbonize the atmosphere faster. Humanity's most important problems right now are problems of the physical world. It's not just AI. AI needs to be in the real world to be able to have an impact—and that's all going to be built on Flow."