Raiqon: Codebeamer founders leave stealth mode

Guest post by Michael Jastram — SE-Trends — Diesen Artikel auf Deutsch lesen

Requirements management is one of many domains that is currently being sustainably transformed by the application of AI. Today I would like to introduce another company that has only recently left stealth mode. Raiqon is interesting to me for several reasons: Firstly, there are some similarities to the AI assistant Semiant, which I co-developed, which gives the idea credibility, at least for me. Secondly, Raiqon was founded by the founders of Intland, who recently sold Codebeamer to PTC. This team has both the resources and the experience to transform this market segment.

After years of stagnation, the 2020s have ignited a new wave of innovation in product development tools, driven by AI and visionary entrepreneurs.

Dr. Michael Jastram

Movement in the market for product development solutions

Since the mid-2010s, it felt like the market for product development tools had been at a standstill for many years. The second generation of requirements management tools (Polarion, Jama, Codebeamer, DOORS Next) replaced the first generation. In the market for modeling tools, the top dogs were established (Enterprise Architect, MagicDraw/Cameo, Rhapsody, Simulink). A few acquisitions took place. Not much happened in other domains such as CAD or PLM either.

But changes became visible in the 2020s. Behind the scenes, entrepreneurs began to reinvent product development – Spread.ai was founded in 2019, Flow Engineering in 2016.

Things got really wild in 2022 when ChatGPT appeared on the scene. Shortly before that, I had started working on Semiant (which has long been used by customers), and others also recognized the importance of AI in product development and requirements management.

Raiqon

Raiqon was only founded about six months ago and had its own stand at this year’s ReConf 2024. Raiqon uses the plugin mechanisms of RE and ALM tools to seamlessly integrate new AI-based functions into them.

But what is particularly interesting is that the founding team consists of Janos and Szabi Koppany. Janos was CEO of Intland until the sale to PTC, Szabi was CFO. This means that both have proven that they understand the market for RE/ALM tools and can operate successfully in it. The team is complemented by Geza Velkey, who has already successfully developed various AI products to product maturity at start-ups in Silicon Valley.

The aim of Raiqon is to make the entire product development chain more effective with AI-supported use cases in the medium term. However, in order to avoid getting bogged down in the early stages, they are focusing on the automotive domain, the Codebeamer tool (with PTC partnership) and use cases relating to requirements management.

Enterprise-ready

At first glance, this does not sound new and is comparable to the promise of trace.space or Semiant. However, the focus is different: while trace.space develops a completely new tool for requirements management and Semiant uses the web browser as an overarching platform, Raiqon focuses on the needs of enterprise customers.

This includes, for example, the fact that Raiqon uses its own domain-specific AI model, which delivers better results than a generic LLM and can also be used on the company’s own servers (no cloud constraints). The company has also already demonstrated scalability to millions of elements.

One feature in particular sets Raiqon apart from other tools: The solution takes into account policies regarding data access. This means that although it processes all the requirements in the AI model, it also takes the confidentiality of data within the company into account during operation. This means that an employee will never receive results that originate from a project that is not accessible to that employee.

Most recently, Raiqon has already received TISAX certification, which is often a prerequisite for OEMs and automotive suppliers when introducing new tools. PoCs with automotive customers are underway.

Bottom Line

Raiqon, a recently launched company founded by the experienced team behind Intland and Codebeamer, is transforming the requirements management landscape with its AI-driven solutions tailored to enterprise needs, particularly in the automotive sector. With TISAX certification and ongoing proof-of-concepts, Raiqon is poised to significantly enhance productivity in product development.