3D Hubs raises $18M to invest in its automation capabilities
3D Hubs, one of the world’s largest network of manufacturing services has just raised $18 million in series C funding. The investment round was led by the Dutch growth capital investment firm Ended Capital and will focus on developing the company’s automation capabilities for manufacturing. The investment round featured the contribution of five other parties including Erik de Bruijn, co-founder of Ultimaker.
The idea behind developing 3D Hubs’ automation capabilities is to make the ordering process smoother for customers. As Bram de Zwart, Co-Founder and CEO of 3D Hubs explains, “Thanks to our algorithms, 93% of manufacturing orders are fully automated, allowing us to get parts into our customers’ hands twice as fast on average. This latest funding round will give us the power to make manufacturing outsourcing even smarter and simpler, and we couldn’t be more excited”.
Source: 3D Hubs
For example, through automated features such as quoting and manufacturability feedback, the on-demand manufacturing procedure could be made more efficient. Talking about this last point, IIan Goudsmit, Investment Manager at Endeit Capital said, “The combination of 3D Hubs’ proprietary software, high-quality network of vetted suppliers spread across four continents and most visited website among engineers makes it a unique company with tremendous global potential”.
So far, the total money invested in the company is $30 million and $18 is the largest funding to date. On top of investing in automation, the company revealed it will open a new office in the US.
Initially founded in 2013, 3D Hubs started off as an online community and marketplace for peer to peer 3D printing services. Today, it is not a marketplace anymore and its services are focusing on more industrial demand. In fact, the company started restructuring and is now a B2B manufacturing platform. 3D Hubs offers access to industrial 3D printing but also to CNC machining and injection molding services, fulfilled by the company’s manufacturing partners.
Source: 3D Hubs
3D Hubs is now available in 140 countries. Furthermore, the company says its network of 3D printing houses has produced over 2 million parts for around 20,000 businesses, with an average turnaround of about two days. The company has also reported that its net revenue tripled in 2018 alone.
This investment is in line with their latest report findings: In 2019, 3D printing should see more applications and become easier and more widely distributed.
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