Stratasys & DSM Venturing Lead $12 Million Round in Support of Inkbit  

Stratasys and DSM Venturing (venture capital arm of Royal DSM) lead the way in yet more financing for startups, acting as the major sources of funding support of $12 million total, in an equity round for Inkbit—the 2017 spinout of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. Headquartered in Medford, MA, Inkbit’s technology is based on research led by Professor Wojciech Matusik which has evolved into a vision-based, AI additive manufacturing platform.

“As pioneers of jetting-based additive manufacturing solutions, we are excited to help Inkbit bring their technology to the factory floor. Vision-based feedback control and artificial intelligence will take additive manufacturing to a whole new level and will help to enable its widespread use for production,” said Ronen Lebi, Vice President of Corporate Development at Stratasys.

Up until this point, a lack of technology in the form of inkjet 3D printers has held back many innovators seeking superior performance—and this means improving reliability, accuracy, and the need for planarization. Known as the company that created the first 3D printer offering vision-based feedback control and artificial intelligence, Inkbit technology is unique due to the inclusion of machine vision and machine learning.

The first 3D printer created by Inkbit. (Image: Inkbit)

 “We are excited to partner with such an extraordinary team of industry-leading players and impressed by their entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to innovation,” said Davide Marini, Inkbit cofounder and CEO.

“The composition of this syndicate was chosen to maximize the speed of development and commercialization of our platform, with each investor bringing to us their unique expertise in equipment manufacturing, high-performance materials and applications in robotics, medical devices and life sciences tools. Our value proposition to customers is simple: we are adding a layer of machine vision and machine learning to material jetting, increasing its accuracy, reliability and enabling its use with production-grade materials.”

With this latest infusion of cash, Inkbit plans to industrialize their AM system further by:

  • Integrating multi-material and volume manufacturing requirements
  • Expanding the set of materials for medical, life sciences, and robotics applications
  • Installing the first units for customers

Currently the Inkbit team is working with customers like Johnson & Johnson in an early access program, with a release date of 2021 set for select customers.

“Materials always play a major role in industrializing breakthrough technologies and in additive manufacturing they become absolutely critical. We are delighted to have Inkbit in our investment portfolio and look forward to helping them develop the best materials for customers world-wide,” said Pieter Wolters, Managing Director of DSM Venturing.

This round of funding included Ocado3M and Saint-Gobain, following on the heels of their previous and initial $2.8M round led by IMA. Inkbit is also funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Science Foundation and MassVentures.

Inkbit has also been in the news previously for working with companies like Johnson & Johnson, in early access programs, as well as gaining industry respect for their development of artificial intelligence products. What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

[Source: press release]

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Voxel8 Announces Series B Funding Round to Advance Its Multi-Material Digital Fabrication

Massachusetts-based Voxel8 was co-founded in 2014 by an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers from Harvard University, led by Dr. Jennifer Lewis. The company is working to develop digital manufacturing systems that will change up how we design, manufacture, and sell footwear and athletic apparel around the world.

Not long ago, the company introduced its multi-material ActiveLab Digital Fabrication System, which allows for the product development, wear testing, and production runs of high-performance athletic shoe uppers, in addition to other textiles. It’s designer-friendly, enabling automation and customization with zero tooling costs. The system uses ActiveMix extrusion technology to build 3D structures and thick films with variable cross sections directly on to textiles.

The 600 kg printer, with a 600 x 430 mm build platform, allows users to digitally design and fabricate shoe uppers, and is transforming how we develop and manufacture footwear and athletic apparel today. The system offers shorter manufacturing reorder lead times, significantly reduced design cycle times, and much lower costs for freight, labor, tariffs, and tooling. This gives customers the ability to design shoes, and other textile products, that include structural features and complex designs with little extra cost – affording them the opportunity to set up manufacturing facilities that are located closer to major end-user markets, like Europe and North America, and respond much faster to consumer demand.

Voxel8 seems to be doing pretty well for itself, and has just announced a Series B investment funding round, which was led by DSM Venturing – the venture investment arm of Royal DSM.

“Voxel8 is an excellent addition to our portfolio. Its multi-materials digital manufacturing platform is poised to dramatically impact the footwear and the sports apparel markets, strategic to DSM,” stated Pieter Wolters, Managing Director for DSM Venturing.

Additional participants in this round of Series B funding include HP Tech Ventures, as well as ARCH Venture Partners and Braemar Energy Ventures – two of Voxel8’s existing investors.

“Voxel8 is uniquely differentiated as a leader in multi-material digital manufacturing, which we believe will meaningfully expand the realm of possibilities for digitally manufacturing a wide range of products. Within the athletic footwear market alone, over 2.5 billion pairs of athletic shoes are manufactured globally each year,” said Jiong Ma, Braemar Energy Ventures. “Voxel8 is well-poised to capture substantial market share in athletic shoe upper manufacturing and, more broadly, medical and smart textiles.”

The company will use the funding to continue advancing its multi-material digital manufacturing.

“Our digital manufacturing systems are revolutionizing how footwear and athletic apparel is designed, manufactured, and sold to consumers across the globe,” said Travis Busbee, the CEO and co-founder of Voxel8. “We are excited to work with this team of world-class and experienced investors. Their global reach, expertise, and funding will accelerate the rapid adoption of Voxel8’s technology for high-volume production of athletic footwear and apparel.”

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[Images: Voxel8]

The post Voxel8 Announces Series B Funding Round to Advance Its Multi-Material Digital Fabrication appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Additive Manufacturing Technologies raises $5.2 million for 3D printing post-processing technology

UK-based post-processing specialist Additive Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) has announced the completion of a $5.2 million Series A funding round.  The round was led by DSM Venturing, the venture capital arm of global material producer Royal DSM, Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund, an enterprise investment scheme formed by private equity firm Foresight Group LLP (Foresight), and the […]

Adaptive3D Announces Series A Investment Round: Investors Include DSM Venturing, Applied Ventures, Chemence

Texas-headquartered Adaptive3D has announced an investment round co-led by two companies, DSM Venturing (funding arm of Royal DSM) and Applied Ventures (the venture capital arm of Applied Materials). In a recent press release sent to 3DPrint.com, they state that they have secured Series A financing. Chemence, a materials and adhesives supplier headquartered in Georgia, will also participate in the investment round.

“Adaptive3D seeks to challenge the cost, throughput and performance in markets today dominated by traditional injection molding, blow molding and other thermoplastic processing techniques,” said Adaptive3D founder and CEO, Walter Voit. “By delivering lightweight, sustainable, micro-latticed structures with superior thermal, chemical, optical and mechanical properties, Adaptive3D seeks to drastically increase the utilization of plastics and rubbers in end applications using additive manufacturing.”

Dr. Walter Voit

“There are only a handful of chemical companies around the world with the global supply chain, distribution channels and application expertise to drive change in how the world manufactures plastics, and we are thrilled to have Royal DSM, one of them, ranked as one of the world’s most sustainable companies, partnering with Adaptive to further develop its engineered materials,” continued Voit. “In a similar vein, there are only a handful of companies in the world with the materials expertise, equipment manufacturing capabilities at scale and creative internal culture to enable a paradigm change in additive manufacturing. Applied Materials is at the top of that list.”

Adaptive3D’s versatile materials, which they describe as having mechanical properties so far ‘unmatched,’ are meant for complex plastic and rubber parts specifically created in environments with open-air production. They have accrued multiple patents centered around materials studies, with some of their data translated from the University of Texas at Dallas, based on past funding from the following:

The technical research company’s polymer resins are currently distributed globally, with the intention to continue optimizing materials for high-volume additive manufacturing practices. Currently they fabricate rubber-like materials, tough damping materials, and low-cure stress photopolymers to be distributed to industries including:

  • Healthcare
  • Consumer goods
  • Transportation
  • Oil and Gas

Royal DSM and Applied Materials both plan to play a part in continued and even greater success for Adaptive3D as they forge ahead in the ‘emerging AM ecosystem,’ offering solutions focused on unique materials.

“At DSM we believe that the age of additive manufacturing for industrial applications is, in fact, the age of materials,” said Hugo Da Silva, DSM VP of Additive Manufacturing.  “Adaptive3D’s engineered photoresins enable new design paradigms in end applications. Working together with Applied Materials allows us to think globally about big problems at scale and offer big ecosystem solutions.”

Royal DSM is centered around scientific research, delivering goods for human and animal nutrition, personal care, green products, medical devices, and even to industries such as mobility and connectivity. Applied Materials overall seeks to take the realm of global requirements for chips and displays.

“Applied Materials is a global leader in semiconductor processing and patterning with light and e-beam technology,” said Om Nalamasu, President of Applied Ventures and CTO of Applied Materials. “Adaptive3D’s photoresins coupled with large-area processing and advanced patterning techniques could potentially deliver robust materials-based solutions at high throughput and low cost across multiple industry verticals.”

While enormous amounts of attention have been focused on the software and hardware of 3D printing over the last few years, users in many different capacities are now also drawn to delving into the science of materials more than ever imagined; after all, materials are what allow us to bring our concepts and products to fruition in terms of true functionality. Options for materials in 3D printing just continue to develop further, and Adaptive3D continues to expand these horizons, progressing just as they promised when we began following their ambitious journey into high-performance 3D printing materials with the advent of ToughRubber, an extremely flexible photopolymer. Find out more about this Dallas-based company here.

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