Markforged Announces $30 Million in New Investment Funding

A lot of progress has been happening lately for Markforged, which just a few months ago introduced the latest 3D printers in its industrial 3D printer line. The company has been growing and continues to grow, with expectations that it will surpass 100 employees by the end of the year. Since the beginning of 2017, Markforged has seen more than 300% revenue growth, its best year yet as gains led to profitability in Q2. Now the company is achieving even more progress with the completion of a $30 million Series C round of funding.

The round was led by next47, a venture firm backed by Siemens, with investments also coming from Microsoft Ventures and Porsche SE, joining existing investors Matrix, Northbridge and Trinity. The new investors are also customers of Markforged, using its printers to reduce time-to-market. To date, Markforged has raised a total of $57 million.

Enhancing workflow taking an idea from prototype to production in a faster timeframe is a hallmark of additive manufacturing, and the company’s expanding lineup of available 3D printers is designed to address the expedition of creation, working with plastic, carbon fiber and metal materials.

“At Markforged we are unlocking a dramatic acceleration to change that process from years to days. With the new funding and strategic support from leading global manufacturing brands, we are poised to change the pace of human innovation,” said Founder and CEO Greg Mark.

Markforged started off this year with the announcement of its first metal 3D printer, the Metal X. The printer introduced an entirely new kind of metal 3D printing technology called Atomic Diffusion Additive Manufacturing, or ADAM, which involves 3D printing layers of metal powder contained in a plastic binder. The binder is removed after printing and then the entire part is sintered at once. The technology is capable of creating metal parts 50 times faster than machining, for 20 times cheaper. Parts produced using ADAM are super-strong and can be printed into complex geometries.

“Markforged is making 3D printing simple, repeatable, and fast. This has far reaching implications for our target industries, from automotive and aerospace to healthcare and energy,” said Lak Ananth, Managing Partner at Siemens next47, who will also be joining the Markforged Board. ” We see customers embedding Markforged into their product development and production processes, tremendously improving speed to market and addressing new opportunities in their industries.”

Markforged, of course, is known for creating the first 3D printer to be able to print with carbon fiber. Strength and speed have always been focal points for the company, as has innovation.

“As cloud services shorten development cycles for software engineers, so too is 3D printing accelerating innovation in the physical world. Markforged’s full-stack offering and innovative materials change the equation for 3D printing, opening up incredible new opportunities for mechanical engineers,” said Matthew Goldstein, Partner, Microsoft Ventures.

Markforged has certainly had an eventful and productive year, and has gained a lot of respect and interest from the rest of the 3D printing industry – as well as from investors.

“Start-ups are an important source of innovations. In order to advance and capitalize on such innovations we have to invest in technologies at an early stage. Our investment in Markforged is a perfect example of this approach. Its additive manufacturing technology has the potential to massively change different segments along the automotive value chain,” said Philipp von Hagen, member of the executive board of Porsche Automobil Holding SE responsible for investment management.

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