Backflip, an AI technology start-up set up by founders of 3D printing company Markforged, has emerged from stealth mode with 30 million USD in funding.
The company, which was founded by carbon fibre additive manufacturing pioneers CEO Greg Mark and CTO David Benhaim to turn ideas, namely text-based prompts, into reality using artificial intelligence, has secured the funding co-led by NEA and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with angel investment from Microsoft CTO and co-founder of LinkedIn Kevin Scott, Android founder and AI futurist Rich Miner, and Ashish Vaswani, a computer scientist known for significant contributions to AI.
In a press release, Mark described what Backflip is building as “a next-generation design tool that allows a small team to move with the velocity of the biggest engineering army in the world” and “a giant leap forward in bringing design and manufacturing back to the U.S.” Designed to provide greater efficiencies than the current 3D design platforms used to turn ideas into manufacturable products, Backflip says its foundational AI models and tools mean complex designs can be created in minutes versus days.
Backflip
Diagram showing process from text prompt to physical product
Its first product is an AI-powered design platform that allows users to input simple text descriptions or photos to create high resolution, 3D-printable models. For example, one of the benefits of pairing 3D scanning with 3D design and additive manufacturing technologies is the ability to reverse engineer obsolete or broken parts, but Backflip claims users will be able to achieve this by simply taking a photo. According to the Backflip website, users will be able to turn their models into parts made from metals, polymer or carbon fibre.
Benhaim said, “We’ve invented a novel neural representation that teaches AI to think in 3D, unlocking a new category of models. That development yields 60x more efficient training, 10x faster inference and 100x the spatial resolution of existing state of the art methods. Our series of 3D foundation models will form the kernel for building the real world.”
Lila Tretikov, NEA Partner and Head of AI Strategy, commented, “I seek out extraordinary founders capable of driving this transformative vision across massive industries, from manufacturing and construction to transportation and robotics. The Backflip team stands at the forefront of this new industrial age at a pivotal time revitalizing American manufacturing, strengthening national security, and accelerating economic prosperity.”
