3YOURMIND Closes $12M Series A Funding Round, Set to Advance Industrial 3D Printing Solutions

German startup 3YOURMIND, which provides industrial 3D printing software solutions, has been busy over the last year since it won the formnext 2016 Start-up Challenge and expanded its services in the US by making its San Francisco office permanent. The company has worked with EOS, whose founder became its main investor in 2015, on the AM Part Identifier (AMPI) system, and introduced the InstAMetal platform with GKN Sinter Metals this spring. Now, 3YOURMIND has more good news.

Today, the company announces that it has closed a successful $12 million Series A funding round, which will help further develop the company’s innovative software solutions.

“The U.S. industrial 3D printing market is maturing rapidly, which requires increased efficiency across all parts of the process,” Aleksander Ciszek, CEO of 3YOURMIND, tells 3DPrint.com.

“3YOURMIND is laser-focused on streamlining our customers workflows to help them maximize the benefits of moving to additive manufacturing.”

After the company’s successful US market entry last year resulted in some major aerospace and engineering customers, like GKN, this funding will be put to good use as 3YOURMIND works to further this expansion, along with making an initial entrance into the Asian market as well.

Markus Josten, Global Sales Director Disruptive Technologies & Markets at GKN, said, “3YOURMIND provides a missing link in the growth and development of industrial 3D printing. The platform enables customers to dramatically decrease the cost and complexity of using 3D printing, and thus makes it much more accessible.”

3YOURMIND will be operating on both US coasts now, as the company also announces that it’s opened an East Coast headquarters based in New York City.

The company has worked hard to develop intelligent, industrial 3D printing software solutions that offer innovative capabilities, such as automatic optimization of 3D models and real-time printability analysis. 3YOURMIND delivers a software solution to 3D printing service providers that allows for error-free, secure 3D printer access at any time; for enterprises, it offers a platform that can determine which parts would be best for 3D printing. The platform then “streamlines the workflow process,” which allows for more efficient production capacity planning in terms of suppliers.

All of this is possible thanks to 3YOURMIND’s successful funding, the latest of which was provided by strategic industry partners and established financial investors – venture capital (VC) firms Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners (UVC Partners) and coparion led this latest round.

“3YOURMIND solves an important problem in the area-wide application of 3D printing. 3D printing has become established as a manufacturing alternative, but now it’s essential to integrate this technology efficiently into the workflow between the designer and the manufacturing process. 3YOURMIND makes that connection work,” said Johannes von Borries, Managing Partner of UVC Partners.

TRUMPF Venture, the VC arm of 3D printing system machine tool builder TRUMPF Group, and AM Ventures (AMV), the sister company to EOS, make up 3YOURMIND’s strategic industry investors.

“3YOURMIND has developed very positively since we were a lead investor in their first financing round in 2015,” said Johann Oberhofer, Executive Vice President of AMV. “Very quickly, they have grown into one of the leading providers of intelligent software solutions for 3D printing. Being part of the Series A financing to support the expansion into the U.S. and Asia was an easy decision.”

Among 3YOURMIND’s customers are global leaders in automotive, aerospace, and engineering technologies including Siemens and Continental, along with medium-sized companies and 3D printing service providers. Siemens has been increasingly interested in additive manufacturing technologies, putting the technology to use throughout its operations and bringing its own software solutions into use with major manufacturers, as well as investing in startups and leading a recent UK-based study into Industry 4.0. TRUMPF, which offers a full line of metal 3D printers and has been exploring machine qualifications for aerospace applications, has also been among the users of 3YOURMIND software for some time. TRUMPF Venture is investing in early-phase startups, underscoring TRUMPF’s overarching commitment to high-tech development.

“TRUMPF is a leading provider of 3D printers, and was one of the first companies to leverage this technology. We are not only developing our own products, but are also investing in and supporting promising start-ups with our venture capital activities,” said Franz Lehmann, Investment Manager of TRUMPF Venture. “The investment in 3YOURMIND underscores our conviction that digital networking is essential to the development of the industry.”

Industrial 3D printing makes it possible to manufacture lightweight but strong component parts, in single pieces, that are able to meet very precise tolerances. But good hardware needs to be backed up by good software, and 3YOURMIND’s industrial solutions allow for lighter, stronger, and more precisely engineered products.

Ciszek said, “The strong demand we are seeing from large, established businesses for our industrial 3D printing solutions confirms this is the future of high-tech manufacturing in the U.S. and globally. We are committed to shaping the production processes of digitized factories, and are delighted to have four outstanding strategic partners investing in our vision, including EOS and TRUMPF which are global leaders in the industrial 3D printing market.”

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.