About Zea

We love solving tough visualization problems in design, manufacturing, and construction.

A Montreal-based company founded in 2015, Zea brings world-leading real-time web rendering technology to the 3D modeling industry.

Building on experience in computer graphics and 3D animation, we are reimagining the way 3D models are experienced across users and devices. The tools we develop leverage high-performance WebGL rendering, WebXR, cloud computing, and the latest software technologies to enable users to collaborate more efficiently.

Our brand embodies what we do and why we do it

Our Mission

Provide the most extendable web-first solutions that create blue oceans of opportunities for our partners.

Our Vision

To Make 3D Technical Communication Secure, Fast, and Easy

Principles

Everything we do is a reflection of these principles. 

  • Trust to build strong partnerships. We act with integrity, always.
  • Security and confidentiality to protect personal and corporate data.
  • Performance to power a new wave of web-applications. We continuously push ourselves, our partners, and our technology forward.

 

Our story

Zea started out as an idea during a year-long camping vacation in New-Zealand. Research papers at the time pointed to the ability to create a real-time rendering engine right in the browser and render the visuals using the GPU. Needless to say that we figured out how to do it and the results are extraordinary. It was a slow start convincing companies in the manufacturing industries to trust us to create zcad files from their valuable CAD assets but we were able to find a few visionary clients to keep the dream alive.

Working with those visionary clients with very different and specific problems forced our engine architecture to be the most extendable platform on the market. 

We obsess over how to make 3D on the web more powerful, versatile, and shareable, so we designed a web-based 3D rendering engine specifically for CAD instead of optimizing CAD for a 3D engine.

Zea started as an idea camping in New Zealand

Meet our team

Philip Taylor | CEO, Founder

Philip Taylor

CEO, Founder

Philip Taylor is a serial entrepreneur with two successful exits behind him and now founder of Zea, a cloud platform for design visualization. With a diverse background covering documentary television production, film and video games, and also software development at large companies like Autodesk and Softimage, Phil has a unique skill set that makes him particularly versatile.

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Michael Smith | COO

Michael Smith

COO

Michael Smith is an advocate for using technology to increase productivity. From his early days as an automotive technician to managing training for BRP’s Powersport division, he has created a culture in the workplace that challenges the traditional ways of getting work done. Michael holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in operations management from the John Molson School of Business (JMSB). He is a thought leader in the Canadian transportation industry where he shares his passion with like minded groups. He is a guest speaker for the Canadian Association of Motive Power Educators (CAMPE) and the North American Council of Automotive Teachers (NACAT).

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Mauro Porras | Lead Infrastructure

Mauro Porras

Lead Infrastructure

Mauro brings with him 10 years of experience in producing and maintaining reliable web applications and is the mind behind Zea’s infrastructure. He is a TopTal qualified developer and has led agile teams in companies such as Globant and Netcentric, as well as working on projects for companies such as Autodesk.

Rob Haines | Product Manager

Rob Haines

Product Manager

Rob ensures that the Zea platform is beautiful, intuitive, and easy to use. Before joining Zea he worked as a UX designer on web apps and e-commerce sites and started his career as a 3D/technical artist on video games and virtual worlds.

Alvaro Pajaro | Developer

Alvaro Pajaro

Developer

Tasked with implementing server-side processes, Alvaro is very competent with node.js and other technologies that are part of Zea's back-end suite. High energy and very smart, he gets pulled into many different projects.