Why industry leader, Stanley Black & Decker, & global investment firm, Techstars, are honing in on additive manufacturing and sustainable solutions in 2019:
In 2018, Techstars and Stanley Black & Decker announced the launch of a multi-year program focused on finding the most disruptive startups in the world working on advanced manufacturing solutions. In the first year of the program, they focused solely on companies working on solutions related to additive manufacturing. The ten companies selected are well on their way to changing fundamental aspects of the manufacturing and consumer industries. Each of the ten companies that were accepted received $120,000.00 in initial funding from Techstars and are now part of #techstarsforlife with continuous access to world-class mentors and hundreds of resources. During the program founders gained access to many leaders from within Stanley Black & Decker including CEO, Jim Loree, and connected with mentors from the across the Techstars network including Ilan Levin, the former CEO Stratasys, Max Lobovsky, the CEO of Formlabs, and Bre Pettis, the founder of Makerbot. The full list of 2018 mentors is available here.
Since the first Demo Day on October 11th 2018, many of the companies have already secured additional funding to continue to expand their businesses, and four received additional follow-on investment directly from Stanley Ventures, the venture capital arm of Stanley Black & Decker.
Max Lobovsk the,CEO of Formlabs meeting with founders during the 2018 Stanley+Techstars Accelerator
Applications for the second year of the program recently opened on January 7, 2019. In this second year of the program, Stanley Black & Decker will continue to double down on their efforts to find innovative companies working on additive manufacturing.
Additive manufacturing has the potential to disrupt supply chains and distribution centers over time, and could even lead to the decentralization of manufacturing. But they have also recognized the potential to leverage the accelerator to positively impact the environment and made the decision to expand their view to also consider companies working on innovative solutions around sustainability. While they are keen on finding companies that can help solve problems around sustainable packaging, they are taking a wide lens at what that might look like.
“We’re trying to find companies that are thinking differently about how to make an impact and drive the manufacturing industry forward. That might mean that we find disrupters working in hardware, material science, or software.” – said Claudia Reuter, Managing Director of the STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator.
If you are interested in learning more about the STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator, you can register now to join a live AMA (Ask me Anything) webinar scheduled for February 27th.
If you’re ready to apply, you can start the process here.
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