May 4, 2017 | By Tess
Luxexcel, a Dutch company that specializes in manufacturing 3D printed ophthalmic lenses, has announced that it has raised a whopping $10 million in equity financing from a group of financial and strategic investors.
The investment round drew in new investors such as global capital equity company KLA-Tencor Corporation, and saw renewed investments from existing international investors SET Ventures (Netherlands), Munich Venture Partners (Germany), and PMV investment fund (Flanders).
With its $10 million in funding, Luxelcel will seek to advance and prepare its optic 3D printing technology for the global ophthalmic market. The company, which recently obtained ISO certification for its 3D printed lenses, says its 3D printing platform will be ready to ship out to ophthalmic lab clients by the second half of 2017.
“This investment by a group of renowned investors combined with the strategic cooperation with KLA-Tencor is of key importance to our business development. It enables us to bring high quality industrial 3D printers to the ophthalmic market and it shows great confidence in our business strategy,” said Hans Streng, CEO of Luxexcel.
Luxexcel’s 3D printing optics tech, which has been in development since the company’s founding in 2009, consists of specialized design software for lenses, workflow integration tools, and (of course) industrial-grade 3D printing hardware.
The patented process, known as Printoptical Technology, utilizes a wide-format industrial inkjet 3D printing system that manufactures lenses by depositing tiny droplets of “ink” that are carefully cured by UV light. It is by using droplets rather than layers that Luxexcel has excelled at producing fully transparent, high quality lenses that do not require any post-processing.
“Ever since our focus on 3D printing of ophthalmic lenses we have experienced an exponentially increasing interest and market pull both from the ophthalmic market as well as related industries such as Virtual and Augmented Reality,” added Streng. “The cooperation with KLA-Tencor and its global track record in the semiconductor-tooling industry gives a major boost to our smart-glasses roadmap. We are now ready to scale up, deliver and disrupt…exciting times.”
Once it is market ready, it is difficult to imagine Luxexcel’s technology not succeeding, since it has been specially developed to be integrated into existing ophthalmic lab workflows.
According to the company, its 3D printing platform allows for a range of ophthalmic lenses to be manufactured, including monofocals, bifocals, trifocals, and more. All lenses produced using the company’s process are compatible with industry coatings and other processes like edging and framing.
Based in Milpitas, California, KLA-Tencor Corporation not only participated financially in Luxexcel’s most recent funding round, but will also work with the Dutch 3D printed optics company through “in-kind industry cooperation.”
Posted in 3D Printing Technology
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