Mar 19, 2018 | By Tess
Desktop Metal, the Massachusetts company striving to increase the accessibility of metal 3D printing, has secured an additional $65 million in funding through a recent financing round. The investment round, led by Ford Motor Company, brings the company’s total investments raised to $277 million.
Desktop Metal has been something of a phenomenon in the additive manufacturing world. Since its founding in 2015, the company has captured the industry’s attention with its goal of developing low-cost, accessible metal 3D printing technology.
With a team of established innovators on its side (including MIT professors, notable materials engineers, and others) the Burlington-based company has not disappointed.
Even before releasing its first additive manufacturing products, the company had brought on significant investments from bigwig companies the likes of Google, GE, BMW, Stratasys, and Lowe’s.
Now that its desktop metal 3D printing technology has been released, the excitement from investors has not subsided. The recent $65 million it secured from an investment round led by the Ford Motor Company saw renewed investments from Future Fund, bringing its total raised to a whopping $277 million.
According to Desktop Metal, the new financing will enable it to accelerate and expand its business and R&D as well as to promote the adoption of its end-to-end metal 3D printing technologies: the Studio System and Production System.
In addition to the funding, Dr. Ken Washington, vice president of Research and Advanced Engineering and CTO of the Ford Motor Company has been appointed to Desktop Metal’s board of directors.
“The age of metal 3D manufacturing is here and this strategic partnership with Ford, along with our portfolio of investors, validates our vision to transform the way metal parts will be designed and mass produced,” said Ric Fulop, CEO and co-founder of Desktop Metal. “The continued support of our investors underscores the power of our metal 3D printing solutions to help engineers and manufacturers, for the first time, apply metal 3D printing for the entire product development lifecycle—from prototyping to mass producing complex, high performance metal parts in a cost-effective way.”
Desktop Metal’s innovative 3D printing systems are a game-changer in the additive manufacturing industry, offering clients the ability to integrate metal AM without having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on state-of-the-art equipment.
The company’s Studio System, marketed as “the first office-friendly metal 3D printing system for rapid prototyping,” is reportedly 10 times cheaper than existing technologies (it starts at $49,900). The Studio System comprises a metal 3D printer and a microwave-enhanced sintering furnace.
The higher-end Production System, for its part, is touted as “the only 3D printing system for mass production of high resolution metal parts.” This system, based off of Desktop Metal’s patented Single Pass Jetting (SJP) technology, is said to be 100 times faster than existing laser-based metal 3D printers.
This past year has been a year of significant growth for Desktop Metal. Not only did the company expand its own workforce to over 225 employees, it also established distribution networks in over 40 countries, delivered its first Studio System 3D printer to Google’s ATAP Group, and was granted seminal patents for its Separable Supports technology.
Posted in 3D Printer Company
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