Voxel8 3D printer
Voxel8 secures yet more financial backing for development of electronics 3D printing kit.
Voxel8, creator of the world’s first multi-material 3D electronics printer, today announced it has secured a $12 million Series A round of financing to expand its world-class team and advance its core technology for the mass customisation of electronics. Braemar Energy Ventures and ARCH Venture Partners led the round and were joined by Autodesk through its Spark Investment Fund and In-Q-Tel.
Co-founded by Harvard professor Dr. Jennifer Lewis, Voxel8 leverages more than a decade of patented research on printing functional materials making it possible to rapidly print functional electronics on a broad scale.
“The Voxel8 3D printing platform is disrupting the traditional design and manufacture of electronic devices,” said Clinton Bybee, co-founder and managing director at ARCH Venture Partners. “Not only does the Voxel8 3D printer enable the design of entirely new devices, it also circumvents the need for traditional tooling, inventory and supply chains.”
Through its collaboration with Autodesk, Voxel8 enables designers and engineers to create freeform, three-dimensional circuits in place of conventional circuit boards to enable entirely new form factors with Project Wire, a Spark powered tool that helps design 3D printable electronic devices.
“We started the Spark Investment Fund to drive overall growth of the 3D printing ecosystem, and multi-material 3D printing is one of the most exciting areas of development for additive manufacturing,” said Samir Hanna, vice president and general manager, Consumer and 3D Printing, Autodesk. “Voxel8’s work in developing the industry’s first multi-material electronics 3D printer marks a key milestone for the industry that we’re more than happy to support.”
At the 2015 International CES, Voxel8 successfully launched a pre-order program and developers kit and has since turned its attention to the commercialisation of its 3D printing platform capable of printing embedded electronics and functional devices.
Having been an earlier seed investor in Voxel8, Jiong Ma from Braemar Energy Ventures, commented: “Dr. Lewis and her team have made tremendous progress since our earlier investment, and the level of industry recognition that Voxel8 is receiving underscores the enormous potential of this technology. We look forward to working with the team and new investors to realise the full value of the Voxel8 3D printing platform.”
Voxel8 founder and CEO, Dr. Jennifer Lewis, added: “It’s very gratifying to see innovations from the lab advancing so quickly, and this new round of funding will help us accelerate the process of bringing this novel technology to market.”
This is the latest series of investment the company has received since its launch in January. In March the Massachusetts based company secured a strategic investment and technology development deal with In-Q-Tel, a not-for-profit, strategic investment firm that identifies innovative technology solutions to support the missions of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
