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Voxel8 Lands New CEO to Lead Multi-Material 3D Printing

After its co-founder, Harvard professor Jennifer Lewis, moved to a supervisory role, Voxel8 has found a new CEO. Friedrich von Gottberg will lead the Boston startup as President and CEO.

Uppers 3D-printed by Voxel8’s Active Lab solution.

Voxel8 first made a splash at CES in 2015 with a desktop electronics 3D printer, dubbed the Developer’s Kit, capable of both printing plastic and depositing conductive inks. The company wowed attendees with the ability to 3D print a complete, functioning quad copter that could fly right off the print bed.

The printer was meant to aid Voxel8 in discovering a killer app for the multi-material printing technology being developed in the lab of Jennifer Lewis. The lab has been involved in research that has included lightweight composites, stretchable sensors, solar panels and organic matter. Much of these achievements are dependent on a unique pneumatic printhead that lays at the heart of Voxel8’s printing process.

Between then and now, the startup sold its desktop electronics 3D printer to the likes of Google ATAP, worked with such partners as the MITRE Corporation, and took on investors that included the CIA, via In-Q-Tel. In the process, the company switched gears, discontinuing the Developer’s Kit and launching the Active Lab, which deploys the material dispensing technology to 3D print plastic onto fabric, along with an inkjet head that provides a full range of color. The killer app, Voxel8 hopes, is athletic wear, specifically shoe uppers. To drive these efforts, the startup received funding from DSM and HP Tech Ventures, as well as existing investors ARCH Venture Partners and Braemar Energy Ventures.

Along the way, Jennifer Lewis shifted from her CEO role to an advisory position so that she could focus on her work at Harvard. Meanwhile, her co-founder, Travis Busbee, took over as CEO as the firm looked for Lewis’s replacement.

Friedrich von Gottberg, President & CEO at Voxel8, Inc.

Prior to joining Voxel8, von Gottberg was with Cabot Corporation, where worked for 20 years. His last positions at Cabot were as senior vice president and president of Purification Solutions, before which he served as vice president and general manager of New Business Segments, as well as vice president and global director of R&D. Cabot is a large, publicly traded chemicals company known for its work with carbon and aerogel, among other materials. While its environmental record has not always been so hot (though it has made progress on this front), it manufactures activated carbon, used to remove pollutants from water, air and more.

The chemical company also makes elastomeric composites, colorants, and inks, fumed metal oxides and other materials, meaning that von Gottberg’s experience with these chemistries, along with his contacts in the industry, will serve Voxel8 in its mission to deliver mass production multi-material 3D printing. Meanwhile, Travis Busbee will return to his position as Chief Technology Officer.

The post Voxel8 Lands New CEO to Lead Multi-Material 3D Printing appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Defining a new paradigm: Harvard researchers invent multimaterial multinozzle 3D printing

Researchers at Harvard University have developed a new method of 3D printing. Termed multimaterial multinozzle 3D printing, or MM3D, the method seeks to help define the emerging paradigm of voxel by voxel fabrication. In this paradigm, 3D printed parts are composed of minute building blocks. Each of these blocks has a different material composition, and are […]

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.

Harvard researchers 4D print the face of a new class of shape-shifting materials

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Harvard researchers develop SWIFT method to 3D print organ building blocks

Researchers from Harvard University’s Wyss Institute have developed a novel sacrificial ink-writing technique called SWIFT (sacrificial writing into functional tissue) to 3D print large, vascularized human organ building blocks (OBBs). Demonstrating its method, the team has created cardiac tissue that fuses and beats synchronously over a 7-day period. This enables the rapid assembly of perfusable […]

Harvard researchers develop method for 3D printing with soundwaves

Researchers from Harvard University’s John A Paulsen School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) in Massachusetts, have created an acoustophoretic 3D printing technique which uses sound waves to form drops of a wide range of viscous fluids into additively manufactured structures. According to the study published in the latest edition of Science Advances, this new […]