Jul 5, 2016 | By Tess
Lexington, Massachusetts-based metal 3D printing startup Desktop Metal announced today that it secured investments from venture capital firm GE Ventures and oil and gas company Saudi Aramco. Desktop Metal, founded in August 2015, has so far raised an impressive $52 million in investment funding, which will, according to a recent press release, help to fund Desktop Metal’s product development, hiring, and business operations.
Desktop Metal was founded with the purpose of creating an accessible way of 3D printing with metal. In other words, the team at Desktop Metal is working on developing an affordable and efficient desktop 3D printer capable of high quality metal prints. And while not much has been said about when or how this goal will come to fruition, the company has certainly gained a lot of attention from some high profile investors. Even before GE Ventures and Saudi Aramco, Desktop Metal had brought on investors the likes of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, New Enterprise Associates, Stratasys, and Lux Capital.
Ric Fulop, CEO and cofounder of Desktop Metal says, “Our company is focused on the barriers that hold metal 3D printing back: price, performance and variety of materials. Today’s technology is where computing was in the 1970s. It’s too costly and cumbersome to scale. We want to bring an everyday-use metal 3D printing solution to the workspace of every engineering team and we have the industry-ready team to do it.”
Indeed, the Desktop Metal team is a capable one as it comprises of a number of experts in the fields of materials science, software, and robotics. The team includes Jonah Myerberg, a leader in materials engineering; Chris Schuh, Chairman of the MIT Department of Material Science and Engineering; Yet Ming Chiang, an MIT professor and expert in material science; Matt Verminski, the ex VP of engineering at Kiva Systems; John Hart, head of the MIT mechanosynthesis lab; Ely Sachs, MIT professor and inventor of the first 3D printer; Rick Chin, one of the early team members of SolidWorks and previously founder of Xpress3D (acquired by Stratasys); Marc Minor, head of marketing of Carbon3D and Ric Fulop, co-founder of A123Systems and General Partner at North Bridge, an early investor in leading CAD and 3D printing companies including Onshape, ProtoLabs, MarkForged and SolidWorks. Scott Crump, the founder of Stratasys also serves as a board observer for Desktop Metal.
According to Steve Taub, Senior Director of Advanced Manufacturing at GE Ventures, “Additive manufacturing is crucial to accelerating innovation at GE and bringing better products to market faster. We are excited to be part of Desktop Metal’s future as they tackle these challenges to broader accessibility.”
Having been founded less than a year ago and with no physical output to date, Desktop Metal’s successful investments suggest the company’s great potential in eventually disrupting metal 3D printing technologies. One thing is for sure, we will be keeping an eager eye on Desktop Metal and its future work.
Direct Metal team
Posted in 3D Printer Company
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