Aug. 25, 2014
German based Stilnest, a 3D Printing and Curated Web Platform for designer jewelry, received a seed investment of roughly $ 1 million from IBB via VC Fonds Technologie Berlin, K-Invest from Pforzheim and other business angels, the company announced on Thursday last week.
Founded in 2013 at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, Germany, Stilnest is a design-oriented 3D model repository of jewelry and design products made by artists from around the world. It offers jewelry designers worldwide market access and customers a place for exclusive designer pieces. Each week a new collection of hand-picked designs is released to add to the broad portfolio.
Stilnest picks up trends instantly and uses 3D printing to produce jewellery items on demand. Currently Stilnest features more than 100 unique jewelry items designed by 37 international designers worldwide and the jewellery is produced in sterling silver or fine polyamide. Later this year they plan to print also items in gold.
K-Invest stated it was interested in the company as its mode of production enabled it to create new jewellery on a weekly basis.
Founded by Julian Leitloff, Raoul Schäkermann, Michael Aigner, Tim Bibow, Florian Krebs and Mike Schäkermann, the company previously received a 25k seed funding from Zeppelin University's VC ZU Micro Equity. The capital was used to set up the operations and market the site to attract the interest of jewellery designers. The company then moved from Friedrichshafen to Berlin in the beginning of 2014.
One nice example of Stilnest's collection is the Cuckoo Project, which gathered five artists from around the world to create a 3D printed remake of the classic timepiece in five weeks time.
Stilnest earns premiums for every sold object. Once a design is approved, Stilnest produces and markets the product. Designers receive a premium of 10% for each sold object. CEO Julian Leitloff states that "[they] work with a highly standardized contract that [they] developed over the turn of one year together with [the] designers to suit the needs of both the designers and [us] as their publishers".
The funding will be used for marketing to raise brand and product awareness. Leithof explains to VentureVillage that the startup wants to target the German market first.
"We compete with Shapeways and other repositories for designers, and with Monoqi for attention of design connoisseurs," Leitloff says. Some competitors differ in the kind of jewelry and others target a different price range. "Competition would help in getting attention and lower production prices for the whole industry. Maybe some of [the] readers feel like giving it a shot," he continues.
"We were really tight on money after two years of product development but managed to sell products worth over €25,000," he says. Stilnest's main market is in Germany, but they also got a few European clients, two in the United States and one retailer in Hong Kong.
With 3D printing on demand, the startup doesn't have high storage costs. "We bring back production to where customers are," Leitloff says.
"A lot has been said about the possibilities of 3D printing. I personally believe less in desktop printers, but more in business model innovations that are now possible due to industrial machines. But who knows. I am happy to be in the space of finding out myself," he says.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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Not less beautiful designs you can see here http://www.sculpteo.com/en/s/pangu/
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