Form 1
Formlabs has announced a major round of Series A financing today (October 24th), as the company makes a serious growth bid.
The designer and manufacturer of the Form 1 3D printer announced the $19 million (£11.7 million, €13.7 million) cash injection. Investors in growth stage technology companies DFJ Growth led the round, joined by Pitango Venture Capital, Innovation Endeavours and numerous returning angel investors.
Formlabs will use the capital to expand its world-class product, design and research teams while continuing to expand its marketing and customer support capabilities internationally.
This financing follows Formlabs' breakout Kickstarter campaign in 2012, when Formlabs captured the imaginations of designers internationally with its high-performance 3D printer raising $2.95 million from thousands of eager backers in 35 countries. This latest round of capital takes Formlabs to the next step. Demonstrating the power of crowdfunding and community support in growing an idea from concept to maturity.
Kickstarter backers can anticipate greater service, powerful new software features, an extended range of materials and continued innovation in affordable high-performance, digital fabrication tools.
Co-founder Maxim Lobovsky said: "There is still a wide open space in front of us to continue innovating and bringing incredible new products to the market; with these new resources, we'll be able to continue to push the envelope, making extraordinary new tools available around the world.
"The group we're putting together to get here is the most creative and passionate team working in 3D printing and I'm personally excited about using this new investment to grow our team and take digital fabrication to the next level."
Formlabs has enjoyed rapid growth in the last 12 months and is now expanding into an 11,000 sq ft facility in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Co-founder Natan Linder said: "We're going to use every inch. There's a lot of work to do, so we are thrilled to have DFJ Growth and Pitango on board. We're looking forward to expanding internationally and bringing a professional 3D printing experience to people around the world."
DFJ Growth Managing Director Barry Schuler commented: "We are very excited to partner with Formlabs on their next phase of growth. Max and the entire Formlabs team have done an amazing job with the Form 1 printer, a big advancement in the new industrial revolution."
And there are other developments in the works for the 3D printing company, as it is also planning on announcing PreForm 1.0 soon - a milestone in the development of its easy-to-use, powerful 3D-printing software. Formlabs' PreForm software allows everyone, from novice to professional, to print 3D models with just a few mouse clicks.
Furthermore, Formlabs is pleased to announce the near-completion of another company milestone. The company has shipped over 900 of the original printer rewards in its Kickstarter campaign. Over the past six months, the company has shipped hundreds printers to its earliest backers in more than 35 countries. This represents a tremendous achievement for the team, which one year ago had only a working prototype prepared.
