CoLab Software, the St. John’s maker of collaboration software for 3D modelling, is seeing early success from its sales deal with automotive giant Ford.

The carmaker uses CoLab’s system in its Ford Pro department, which makes fleet management software and hardware.

Ford Pro gives fleet operators the ability to track metrics like electric vehicle charging and driver behaviour. CoLab chief executive Adam Keating wrote on LinkedIn that Ford Pro’s design team, based in Europe, has seen its overall work timelines cut by around 30 percent. Ford credits the ability to collaborate remotely and across time zones with much of that improvement.

“When we started CoLab, one of the companies we really wanted to work with was Ford Motor Company,” said Keating.

“Fast forward 5 years to today - Ford Pro and CoLab Software are working together to accelerate design iterations, drive more innovative solutions, and reduce errors across their 200-strong converter partners in Europe.”

A graduate of the Y Combinator accelerator in Silicon Valley, CoLab fared well during COVID-19, with its revenue growing 609 percent in 2020. It also closed one of the largest funding rounds in Atlantic Canada in 2021 with a $21 million Series A raise.

And in October the company joined the Lazaridis Institute’s prestigious ScaleUp program for growth-stage companies in the wake of what was then its best quarter ever.

The Lazaridis Institute itself is part of Waterloo, Ontario's Wilfrid Laurier University. CoLab was the third St. John's company accepted into the program after Mysa Smart Thermostats and medtech company Breathesuite.

At the time, CoLab had 82 employees — up from 54 people in 2021 — and planned to hire another 20 to 25 people in 2023, with scaling its revenue team as a key focus.