Explaining Carbon3D

Why the startup has raised so much money; why we should care about expiring patents; and why Carbon3D still has a long way to go before they revolutionize manufacturing

It’s not often that a startup announces its presence in the way that Carbon3D has in the last four weeks. It added to that story today, announcing a $10 million investment from Autodesk’s Spark Investment Fund.

In addition to this latest announcement, Carbon3D’s emergence into the public consciousness over the last month has included:

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The Week in Advanced Manufacturing Funding – February 27, 2015

Sols raises $11.1 million Series B; Stratasys acquires 3D printing consultancy Econolyst

Today, two major deals were announced in the advanced manufacturing world: one, a vote of confidence for a future of mass customization; the other, an acknowledgement that in order for the additive manufacturing / 3D printing market to grow, traditional product manufacturers will require advice on how to best utilize the disruptive technology.

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The Week in Advanced Manufacturing Funding – February 13, 2015

3D Systems branches out with new acquisition; NVBots and New Matter score funding; VC funding for 3D printed casts and splints

It was a very busy week in the advanced manufacturing venture space as three startups scored VC funding, while 3D Systems continued to grow through acquisitions. It continued an exciting start to 2015 for the advanced manufacturing startup sector, which, thus far, has shown a bias towards the development of low price printers and digital design.

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Venture Capital Strategies for Additive Manufacturing / 3D Printing

Over the last few months, Manufacturing Disruption has published a series of articles describing opportunities created in the additive manufacturing / 3D printing industry and how VC firms can capitalize on these opportunities. The genesis of the research began with an independent project I began at London Business School during my Executive MBA and the more I got into the topic, the more promise it showed.

My research has shown four distinct strategies for value creation and capture arising from additive manufacturing technology, with corresponding opportunities across the venture capital industry, from small seed funds to corporate VC funds, all the way up to major top-tier firms. Each strategy is summarized below and includes links to in-depth articles:

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The Week in Advanced Manufacturing Funding – February 6, 2015

Stratasys to invest in the future; Bolt raises new fund, expands and partners

Up and down news from the advanced manufacturing funding realm this week: Stratasys came out with a press release regarding its preliminary FY 2014 financial results indicating an impairment of $100-110 million on MakerBot while making plans for future investment across a number of areas. Meanwhile, Bolt – an early-stage venture capital firm specializing in startups at the hardware/software interface – announced a new $25 million fund (Fund II) and expansion to a second facility in San Francisco. As if that wasn’t enough, a few days later, Bolt and well-known seed accelerator Y Combinator jointly announced a partnership that will see Bolt’s partners and engineering staff added to Y Combinator’s already impressive list of mentors, while offering access to Bolt’s workshop facility to YC hardware startups.

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The Week in Advanced Manufacturing Funding – January 30, 2015

3D-Pen Startup, CreoPop, Raises Financing Round Led by 500 Startups

On 26 January, Singapore-based CreoPop announced a new financing round led by 500 Startups, with participation from Singapore-based venture capital firm Ruvento, in addition to a number of private co-investors. Investment in CreoPop continues 500 Startups’ interest in 3D printing, highlighted by the successful acquisition of Makerbot by Stratasys for a reported $400 million, and joins other printer-based startups – pinshape and AstroPrint – hoping to follow in Makerbot’s successful footsteps.

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Growing the Additive Manufacturing Ecosystem

Venture Capital Strategies for Additive Manufacturing (Part 4)

The long term success of any manufacturing technique is greatly coupled to users’ access and ability to make the most of the technique’s inherent advantages. Additive manufacturing / 3D printing is no different. So while the previous investment strategies outlined on Manufacturing Disruption (The (Printed) Full Stack, Reinventing the Hardware Startup and Innovating Internally – Corporate Venture Capital) focused on leveraging technological advantages, the final strategy is all about expanding access to additive manufacturing and helping users unleash its power. This strategy is approachable to many would-be entrepreneurs and is particularly attractive from the venture capitalist’s perspective as it is flexible, scalable and conforms to existing investment strategies already employed by many prominent VCs.

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The Week in Advanced Manufacturing Funding – January 16, 2015

Stratasys strengthens Southeast Asian distribution channels and New Capital Fund II gets a new investor

After the excitement of last week, the advanced manufacturing funding scene has been relatively quiet, apart from the the 3D-printed rocket exploits of prominent venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson. That said, there were a couple stories worth noting:

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The Week in Advanced Manufacturing Funding – January 9, 2015

botObjects acquired by 3D Systems and Rethink Robotics raises $26.6 million in Series D

botObjects cashes in on colorful innovation

On January 5, 3D Systems announced that they had acquired London-based botObjects, designers and manufacturers of the CubePro C, a color desktop 3D printer. When botObjects first announced the launch of their new printer in 2013, their claims of full-color 3D printing caused both excitement and disbelief in the additive manufacturing community. When the printer was finally revealed, botObject showed that it could achieve a color filament solution for PLA (plastic) extrusion using a five-color cartridge system. Each of the five filaments are a primary color (cyan, magenta, yellow, black and white) and by mixing in specific ratios (pre-deposition), the printer can print all the colors of the rainbow. It represents significant innovation beyond essentially open-source extrusion printing and is a good case study for value being created in the wake of Stratasys‘ original FDM patent expiration.

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Metamaterials – The Ultimate Composites

On December 19th, metamaterials startup Echodyne announced a $15 million Series A investment round led by Bill Gates and Madrona Venture Group. As the fourth spinout from Intellectual Ventures, Echodyne is seeking to commercialize novel metamaterials-based radar technology, whose origins trace back to research at Duke University and UC San Diego. The investment demonstrates the building of commercial momentum for the technology and is good impetus to define and discuss metamaterials, identifying why they will be important, especially in the context of advanced manufacturing:

Metamaterials: “Beyond Nature”

The exact definition for metamaterials can vary depending on the source, but it is important to realize that the term “metamaterial” does not refer to one specific material, but rather to a design concept for materials.

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