Anisoprint founder and CTO Fedor Antonov has stepped back from his role at the company.
Confirming his transition into an advisory position on LinkedIn, Antonov said his decision to vacate his role as CTO comes as the company shifts its focus towards the consumer segment.
In recent years, Antonov took up the position as CTO to focus on the technology roadmap of Anisoprint with Ryan Liu stepping into the role as CEO. This coincided with the company moving its headquarters to China.
Now, with market trends suggesting the industrial additive manufacturing machine segment is stagnating and the consumer 3D printer market continuing to grow, Anisoprint is increasing its focus on the consumer segment.
In line with this pivot, Antonov has felt it the right decision to step back, citing his long-held vision of penetrating industrial markets with its composite 3D printing technology.
“Sometimes the hardest decision is letting go,” Antonov wrote on LinkedIn. “Since we started developing CFC technology 10 years ago at Anisoprint, I've always seen it as an industrial technology. After many years of development, continuous improvement, interaction with customers, and countless failures, that vision only solidified.
“Now, the data is clear (see CONTEXT report) – Consumer machines: 2m+ units, +20% year-on-year; Industrial machines: -20% year-on-year. Chinese manufacturers suddenly rose, overtaking Western ones in almost every niche. When we moved to China, this wasn’t obvious yet. But we anticipated it. After the move, Ryan Liusaw saw the opportunity for CFC in the consumer segment. He was anticipating the growing consumer 3D printing trend. I agree. But it wasn’t my passion.”
After internal discussions, it was decided that rather than serve both the industrial and consumer markets, a clear focus was needed. And with the consumer machine needing no ‘further research or technology improvement’, that would be the right place to invest its product development efforts.
A new brand, FibreSeek, has since been launched and Antonov has stepped up to his advisory role.
