ExOne Global Holdings
Left to right: Rudolf Franz, Whitney Haring-Smith, Eric Bader.
Having moved to procure assets from Voxeljet and ExOne in recent months, Anzu Partners today announced the combination of the two entities into ExOne Global Holdings.
It comes after 25 years of the two brands operating as competitors, pioneering binder jetting technology as a feasible manufacturing option. As opportunities presented themselves in 2025, this ‘common intellectual history’ has proved an attractive proposition for Anzu.
When it moved to acquire assets from a series of 3D printing brands this year – including EnvisionTec, of which the dental portfolio was sold off to SprintRay – some questioned whether Anzu had identified an opportunity to flip the businesses for a quick profit.
With today’s announcement, that seems not to be the case. Instead, Anzu Partners has identified the potential of consolidating two competitors into one, combining their expertise and portfolios in a bid to satisfy the needs of their respective industrial customers.
This week, TCT spoke to Whitney Haring-Smith, Anzu Partners Managing Director and Chair of the ExOne Global Holdings Board, and Eric Bader, the CEO of ExOne Global Holdings (previously Managing Director of ExOne GmbH). Here is what we know so far.
Who are Anzu Partners?
Anzu Partners is an investment firm managing over $1 billion of assets in a portfolio of more than 40 companies. It focuses on what it describes as ‘critical’ and ‘breakthrough’ technologies in the clean-tech, industrial and life-science technology sectors.
In the last 12 months, Anzu has taken up an interest in the additive manufacturing sector because it sees that the ‘core applications where customers get value from additive manufacturing are increasingly clear and compelling,’ while also overlapping with the markets it is already invested in.
“For us, additive manufacturing sits at the nexus of so many of those fields,” Haring-Smith told TCT. “If you look at the industries that are transformed or enabled by additive manufacturing, they run from aerospace and automotive to life sciences, and we have been excited to think about how we can support that suite of technologies as they reach that industrial maturity.”
In ExOne and Voxeljet, it identified the potential for two companies with similar, albeit synergistic, product offerings to deliver on that opportunity. Though the two have operated as competitors over the last 25 years in Europe and the US, beyond those continents, they have focused their efforts in different geographies. ExOne, for example, entered the Japanese market 20 years ago, but has not developed the same reach in China or India. Voxeljet isn’t so well known in Japan, but has been working for several years in both China and India.
The opportunity to acquire the assets of the two companies and combine them has come about after both encountered financial difficulty. Voxeljet notably delisted from the Nasdaq exchange to reduce expenses, while ExOne’s parent company, Desktop Metal, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the summer.
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As a unified entity, however, Anzu is confident it can build a company for the long-term.
“You can reach your own conclusions about some of the opportunities and challenges that both companies had [in the past],” Haring-Smith said. “We do believe that an integrated operation can be profitable. It will take work, and we are prepared to roll up our sleeves to do the work to achieve that outcome for our customers.”
What is their plan for a combined entity made up of ExOne and Voxeljet?
What Anzu has acquired with its investments into ExOne and Voxeljet is the sand binder jet printing capabilities of both, as well as Voxeljet’s High Speed Sintering offering. ExOne’s metal binder jetting capability was picked up Arc Impact Acquisition Corporation, in a separate acquisition of Desktop Metal assets. Anzu has also acquired EnvisionTec assets, with communication on the plans for that business to follow in due course.
With ExOne Global Holdings’ focus, then, primarily on sand binder jet printing, Anzu believes it is creating a global leader in industrial additive manufacturing. The company will continue to offer the S-Max line of printers from ExOne and ‘some of the breakthrough products of the larger-format Voxeljet printers' as part of a portfolio that covers ‘very precise and small’ systems to ‘large-scale production’ systems.
“Both companies bring complimentary product suites,” Haring-Smith said. “We are focused on what are the joint technical upgrades that we can make, and joint advancements that we can make, that deliver even more value for customers. Obviously, there is a discussion that goes on in our R&D and product teams about how we meet today’s customer needs better and how we need tomorrow’s customers’ needs early.”
ExOne Global Holdings will maintain the operating subsidiaries in all existing regions, with Bader keen to sustain, and where possible improve, the support service provided to customers. He is keen to bolster aftermarket support, increase the accessibility of service technicians, and enhance spare part availability across all regions, to support customer application of 3D printing technology.
Where does Anzu see synergies between the two companies? And where does it see duplication?
Bader remarked that there is some small overlap in existing product offerings, but did not disclose whether certain products are likely to be discontinued.
Between the two businesses, there is an install base of more than 500 machines across a wide range of vertical markets including – but not limited to – aerospace, automotive, art and architecture. There are some customers that use – or have used – technologies from both companies, but Haring-Smith notes that there is plenty of opportunity to introduce existing Voxeljet users to ExOne capabilities and vice versa. This, he says, could involve more suitable machine sizes or material offerings.
As the two outfits combine, they also pool extensive IP portfolios and R&D capacity. Haring-Smith describes these resources – which are said to include hundreds of patents, a series of globally renowned trademarks, and very deep trade secretes – as ‘very rich’ and ‘formidable’. Anzu fully intends to bring 'the best of what each company has to offer' together, in line with customer wants and needs.
Haring-Smith wouldn’t be drawn on specific R&D objectives, but listed print speed, print quality, and durability as areas of interest. “As technology teams, we get very excited about each and every way in which we can develop the next generation,” he said.
When it comes to potential duplication in the respective workforces of the two businesses, Haring-Smith told TCT: “We believe in integrated operations. That’s important for the sustainability of our offering to our customers and to our team members. There are conversations that will occur around organisational changes [but] those conversations need to happen internally first.”
Is ExOne Global Holdings open for business?
Put simply, yes. Despite the uncertainty that has surrounded both Voxeljet and ExOne in recent years, product shipments and customers support is said to have continued. As the combined company launches on Thursday October 23rd, ExOne Global Holdings is ready and willing to support prospective and new customers.
Haring-Smith, who joked that if the company isn’t open for business somebody should tell his inbox, remarked that since he has been involved with both entities, product shipment and service support has been an ‘around the clock and around the world operation.’
“Every customer wants support faster and every customer wants products of the next generation,” he noted. “Our customers are pushing forward the frontier, and we are excited to be part of that partnership with them.”
What is the vision for the company from here?
Today marks the start of ‘a lot of important work’ to ‘deliver for existing and future customers’ of ExOne Global Holdings.
The combined company, though harnessing the ExOne branding for its name, plans to use both brands moving forward. Since each company has a greater presence than the other in certain geographic regions, Anzu feels it makes sense to utilise both brands in those markets.
What the combined company wants to achieve is ‘being there’ for its customers, adding value to their manufacturing operations with its technology offering, and providing reliability and stability. ExOne Global Holdings, then, will push to industrialise additive manufacturing by pooling resources and expertise.
“People really rely [on our technology],” Bader said. “This is not like in a prototyping workshop where if the machine is down for a week, nobody cares. Our customers become really energised about it if a machine stands still for a couple of hours.”
“They are working in some of the most challenging industries,” added Haring-Smith. “Aerospace, automotive, foundries, and they expect the same high quality level of service from ExOne Global Holdings that they get from all the other global players that support them. We look forward to being able to, as ExOne Global Holdings, achieve the same global standard of excellence.”
