Sep 15, 2016 | By Tess
Carbon, formerly Carbon 3D, Inc., the company responsible for the well-received M1 3D printer and its proprietary CLIP technology, has just announced that it has received $81 million in funding from new strategic investors which include GE Ventures, BMW, Nikon, and JSR. Together with Carbon’s existing investors, the company has raised a total of $222 million in funding.
The new investment funds, obtained through a Series C investment round, will be put towards the goal of expanding the company’s products and services across the globe and consequently accelerating the transition from using 3D printing for prototyping applications to using it for production quality parts. In other words, Carbon wants to bring its 3D printing technology to mainstream manufacturing. The Silicon Valley-based 3D printing company will also seek to expand its own CLIP technology across borders in Europe, Japan, and other Asian markets and plans to increase the production of its M1 3D printer in order to meet international demands.
“At launch we set forth a bold vision to fundamentally change how the world makes ‘things,’” explains Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone in a press release. “We have been working to deliver on that vision for the U.S. market, and are ready to step onto the global stage.”
Nikon Corporation and JSR Corporation have been especially strategic partners for Carbon’s plan to expand into the Japanese market as both companies are exploring synergies through which they will combine their expertise to both introduce and expand on Carbon’s technologies within Japan and other Asian countries. Specifically, Nikon will offer its experience in metrology and 3D data profiles (which include 3D measurement and X-Ray CT scans), and JSR will use its expertise in chemicals and microelectronics to explore new materials for the extension of Carbon’s established supply chain.
“The current 3D printing market, with the exception of very few, is a prototyping market,” said Nobu Koshiba, President of JSR Corporation. “Carbon approached the challenge, and potential, of 3D printing from a very different perspective. With its M1 and CLIP technologies, Carbon has introduced a solution that will truly revolutionize manufacturing.”
With their M1 3D printer, Carbon has helped push open the doors of possibility for using 3D printing as not only a prototyping technology, but as a means to make production quality parts. Not only production quality, however, the M1 3D printer has even allowed for the additive manufacturing of isotropic parts with high mechanical properties and surface finishes comparable to those of injection molded parts. Carbon, which already serves clients as established as BMW Group, Delphi, and Ford, is making quite the impact within the automotive, medical, apparel, and consumer electronics industries.
In terms of materials, Carbon offers a series of five commercially available resin families, which include RPU Rigid Polyurethane, FPU Flexible Polyurethane, EPU Elastomeric Polyurethane, CE Cyanate Ester, and PR Prototyping, for general purpose printing. We’ll be excited to see what new 3D printing materials and technologies the innovative company unveils in the wake of their new investments.
According to the company’s press release, additional details about the investments and new investors of the Series C investment round will be unveiled in 2017. This new information will also include details about the investors’ usage of Carbon’s CLIP 3D printing technology, so be sure to stay tuned.
Posted in 3D Printer Company
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GE is putting their investment money in a lot of 3D printer companies.