Altair Engineering

Altair Engineering was founded in 1985 by James R. Scapa, George Christ, and Mark Kistner in Troy, Michigan. Since the company's outset,[5] Scapa has served as its CEO (and now chairman).[6] Initially, Altair started as an engineering consulting firm,[7] but soon branched out into product development and computer-aided engineering (CAE) software.[8] In the 1990s, it became known for its software products like HyperWorks, OptiStruct,[9] and HyperMesh,[10] which were often used for product development by the automotive industry.[11][12] Some of Altair's early clients included the Ford Motor Company, General Motors,[8] and Chrysler.[13] Its software also aided in the development of the Young America[14] and AmericaOne racing yachts,[8] the former of which was used to compete in the 1995 America's Cup.[14]

Its software also found uses in other sectors, including aerospace (NASA),[15] aviation (Airbus),[9] consumer electronics (Nokia),[15] and toy manufacturing (Mattel), among others.[8] In 2002, Altair software aided in the design of the Airbus A380 by weight optimizing the aircraft wing ribs.[9] That year, the company moved into a new headquarters in Troy, Michigan.[5] It maintained separate offices in Allen Park, Michigan.[16] Also in 2002, Altair opened offices in Seongnam, South Korea and Shanghai, China,[17] adding those locales to its international footprint alongside India where it had begun investment in 1992.[10]

In addition to its software production, Altair continued hiring out engineering consultants to its corporate clientele.[8] Its consultancy services accounted for the majority of the company's revenue until 2004, when the sale and licensing of software overtook that.[18] In October of that year, General Atlantic invested $30 million in Altair.[19] Also in 2004, Altair partnered with General Motors and the United States Department of Defense on the design and construction of a new military vehicle.[20]

Altair also branched out into the life sciences, finance, and pharmaceutical industries with its high performance computing software, PBS Professional,[18] which it had acquired the rights to in 2003.[21] In June 2006, Altair acquired the French CAE software company, Mecalog, and its Radioss technology suite.[18] In 2007, it spun off a new wholly-owned subsidiary called ilumisys, which would focus on light-emitting diode (LED) lamps[22] designed to be used as direct replacements for fluorescent light tubes. Ilumisys' operations were moved to Michigan in 2011,[23] and it was rebranded as Toggled in 2012.[24]

In the early 2010s, Altair's product design division (Altair ProductDesign) began creating prototypes of various vehicles including a hydraulic hybrid transit bus known as BUSolution[25] and an electric concept car called the Avant GT.[26] By 2013, the company had offices in 19 countries worldwide and 1,800 employees.[27] That year, it also bought out General Atlantic's equity stake in the company.[28]

On November 1, 2017, Altair went public with an IPO on the Nasdaq stock exchange and began trading under the stock ticker symbol ALTR. The company raised $156 million with share prices starting at $13.[28] In the years leading up to the IPO, Altair acquired 11 different companies with strategic assets and expertise in fields like material science, electronics, industrial design, rendering, and others.[10] The company then made its products available to qualified startup companies through its Startup Program, formed in 2018 and relaunched in 2021.[29][30]

By 2019, the company had acquired a total of 30 businesses or business units. It also began making efforts to incorporate artificial intelligence technology into its new software packages.[6] That year, it opened a new office in Greensboro, North Carolina after acquiring the data analytics company, Datawatch, which had offices in the area.[31]

In June 2020, the company announced that it would be providing software updates for all of its products. The updates were implemented to improve workflows and provide access to a broader set of tools for data analytics, machine learning, and physics.[32] In January 2021, Altair announced that it collaborates with Rolls-Royce Holdings on a project that uses AI and machine learning to improve the aero jet engine design process.[33] In November 2021, Altair;s PBS Professional workload manager was selected by the Argonne National Laboratory to be used across the organization's high performance computing (HPC) systems, including the Polaris and Aurora supercomputers.[34] That same month, Altair was also included on Inc. Magazine's 2021 Best-Led Companies list.[35] In December, Altair was named as one of Investor's Business Daily's Best 100 ESG Companies.[36]