EXA

Exa Corporation

A maker of engineering simulation software, Exa Corporation created PowerFLOW, letting automakers and aerospace engineers test how air flows around cars and planes on a computer—simulating wind noise, engine cooling, and aerodynamics before a prototype is ever built. Founded in 1991 by Kim Molvig, a former MIT nuclear engineering professor, the company took its name from "exa," the prefix for a quintillion, nodding to the enormous calculations its software handles. French software giant Dassault Systèmes bought it in 2017.