Essentium, a provider of 3D printing solutions for industrial additive manufacturing, has closed $22.2 million in Series A funding.
The round was led by BASF Venture Capital with participation from Materialise, Genesis Park, and previous seed round investors.
BASF Venture Capital Investment Manager, Sven Thate, will join the Essentium board.
The funding round will be used to scale manufacturing, engineering, international distribution, sales and marketing operations to meet market demand for the recently introduced Essentium High Speed Extrusion Platform.
The multi-billion-dollar potential of additive manufacturing has long been hampered by an inability to produce parts to a similar strength, speed and scale of injection molded parts.
Essentium innovation in materials and production platforms has solved this and is poised to have profound impact in the production and manufacturing workflow of automotive, aerospace, contract manufacturing and biomedical industries.
Essentium has operations in College Station, Texas, Orange County, California and Shanghai, and China.
These areas are set to benefit through employment and business creation opportunities from the fast-growing additive manufacturing market and its impact on industries such as automotive, aerospace, biomedical, contract manufacturing, and oil and gas.
Sven Thate, BASF Venture Capital investment manager, says: “Unleashing and accelerating the potential of additive manufacturing for our customers is a priority for BASF.
“Our investment, together with the strategic market partnership BASF has with Essentium, advances this strategy.”
Paul Hobby, Genesis Park founding partner, says: “Essentium falls right in our sweet spot of sponsoring local enterprise and helping fast growth companies successfully scale to the next level.
“The emerging technology and innovation ecosystem in Texas define the future of our regional economy. Sustainable efficiency is key to competitiveness in our legacy energy businesses and Essentium offers great possibilities for those sectors as well.”
Blake Teipel, says Essentium co-founder and CEO, says: “Industrial additive manufacturing is ripe for transformation.
“The problem/solution paradigm is made clear through independent research we commissioned among executives in industrial manufacturing where 100 percent of respondents reported obstacles in using 3D printing for large scale production, and 88 percent stated that their industries’ will save billions of dollars in production costs when the barriers are eliminated.
“Eliminating these barriers is what Essentium is delivering on.”
