Hi Shapeways community,
I have some exciting news to share with you: Shapeways has just closed a new round of funding. We raised $30M led by INKEF Capital, and supported by new investors Hewlett Packard, Presidio Ventures, as well as existing investors Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures, Lux Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
We see 3D printing as digital manufacturing technology, disrupting the old analog mass manufacturing technologies and business models. This has a profound impact on manufacturing and society. It changes who is in control, from corporations to individuals. It changes what products are available, from what’s available in stores to whatever you want. It changes where products are made, from centralized huge factories to everywhere in the world (we brought manufacturing back to New York City and Eindhoven, the Netherlands). And it changes the time to market of products, from months to days. In this new world of digital manufacturing Shapeways is the platform enabling anyone to make amazing products come to life.
Strandbeest by Theo Jansen
With this new round of financing we will continue to make investments to benefit our community. We will improve our website, our materials portfolio, and our service, making it easier, more fun and faster for you – our community – to get what you want.
Since Shapeways started it has been an amazing journey, starting on the Philips High Tech Campus in 2007 and launching in July 2008, to becoming an independent company with our first investment from Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures in 2010. We opened our first factory in Eindhoven in December 2010 and our main office in New York City at the same time. In 2012 we opened our factory in Long Island City, Queens. Most recently, in October 2014 we moved to an amazing and huge factory in Eindhoven, because the previous one simply was too small.
Entry to our new factory in Eindhoven
During these years we’ve grown a lot! We now have over 620,000 community members, designers and companies using Shapeways. Over 30,000 are using Shapeways as the platform to run their business and our database holds over 2.5 million 3D printable products. We are offering over 50 different materials and finishes and there are many more to come.
It’s really awesome to welcome Robert Jan Galema from INKEF Capital to the board. He knows Shapeways from our early years at the Philips Lifestyle incubator and I enjoyed working with him during that time. His experience in growing small businesses and running large businesses will be very valuable for our next phase as a company. We are also excited to welcome HP, a company that is working on the next generation of 3D printers, and with whom we already announced a partnership to become one of its foundational customers. With this round HP reconfirms its commitment to 3D printing and we are excited to team up with them. We are also excited to welcome Presidio Ventures, part of the Sumitomo group. Their knowledge about Japan will help us bring Shapeways to the Japanese market when the time is right.
This funding round ensures that Shapeways will succeed in its role as the world leader in the next industrial revolution.
Thank you for being part of this amazing journey!
Pete