Autodesk Inc on Tuesday said it would take a minority stake in a Texas company that makes software for planning and building infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges.
San Rafael, California-based Autodesk said it would invest in Aurigo Software, which sells cloud-based software to governments, water authorities, airports and others that build large projects. Autodesk is the biggest maker of software for designing three-dimensional objects ranging from automotive parts to skyscrapers.
Autodesk has been seeking to expand deeper into infrastructure projects, where its tools are used to design and engineer structures. But Aurigo, based in Austin, Texas, has a bigger share of the market in software that infrastructure owners use for estimating costs and constructing the projects, Autodesk Chief Executive Andrew Anagnost told Reuters in an interview.
Autodesk would not comment on the size of the deal, but Aurigo made a filing with regulators on April 2 saying it had sold $8 million in new securities.
Anagnost said discussions for the investment predated the coronavirus crisis, but said infrastructure spending is likely to rise as governments look to recover from millions of lost jobs.
"We do believe infrastructure is probably going to get more focus in the coming years, no matter what administration is in power," he said. "What people really need out of these projects is to get more bang for their buck. Deep digitization allows people to get more for their dollar out of these projects."
(This story corrects "D" in Autodesk to lowercase in headline.)
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler)
