trinckle Takes Home Another 3D Printing Award, Shares 2018 Vision as Additive Manufacturing Becomes More Competitive

Startups everywhere will likely agree on one thing – they need support to help get off the ground and stay there. Luckily, there are plenty of organizations dedicated to providing just that. One of those organizations is EIT Digital, a digital innovation and education organization focused on fostering entrepreneurial talent. EIT Digital takes a multifaceted approach to its goal, but one of the ways it supports entrepreneurs is through the annual EIT Digital Challenge, a competition that seeks to highlight startups with the greatest scaling-up potential.

In this year’s Challenge, the winner in the Digital Industry category was trinckle, a 3D printing service and software company that was launched in 2013. As part of its services, trinckle provides software to companies to allow them to establish business models in the 3D printing industry. It also offers, through its paramate platform, a way for companies to automate the 3D design process, saving time and money.

This is the third award trinckle has won this year; the company was already honored by startup magazine The Hundert as one of Berlin’s 100 most promising startups, as well as being among the top five in the Industrial Product Applications category by TCT Magazine.

“For us, a very exciting year is coming to an end. We have been known as an online 3D printing service on the market since 2013, but have also built up a reputation as software specialists for additive manufacturing applications in recent years. And this year we have seen that these additive manufacturing applications are gaining a new quality,” Dr. Ole Bröker, Head of Business Development and Consulting, told 3DPrint.com.

The company exhibited at this year’s formnext, which brought more than 21,000 attendees together. There, the trinckle team observed first-hand the growth and business drive of the 3D printing industry and has been evaluating what that growth means for the company.

“The Formnext in particular has shown that many companies are about to transform their pilot projects into commercial business models. Additive manufacturing hardware and materials are getting better and better and have reached an area of competitiveness for many applications. Therefore, we expect many new innovations and inspiring applications for the 3D printing market in 2018,” Dr. Bröker told us.

“For us, then, this is an important phase. For any company that wants to implement business models in 3D printing and is concerned about design costs and customization, we want to be the primary contact. Our software platform paramate aims at the automation of design processes and the web-based configuration of model designs. In Germany, we have meanwhile been able to establish ourselves as a central software partner for such applications. We still see great potential for Europe and the USA.

The EIT Digital Accelerator program is a major step forward in this area: we can access a network of more than 130 European top corporations, SMEs, start-ups, universities and research institutes; we can team-up with a team of 40 experienced business developers and financial experts; and we can leverage EIT Digital co-location centers in Berlin, Budapest, London, Helsinki, Madrid, Paris, Stockholm, Trento, as well as a hub in Silicon Valley.”

As a winner in the EIT Digital Challenge, trinckle received €50,000; it is also participating in the EIT Digital Accelerator program, also worth €50,000. As Dr. Bröker mentioned, trinckle will benefit from working with 40 financial experts and business developers in 13 countries and Silicon Valley, providing the company with a major boost as it turns toward international scaling.

“The support of EIT Digital comes at exactly the right time for us,” said trinckle CEO Florian Reichle. “In the 3D printing industry, a breakthrough for various commercial applications can be expected. We have prepared ourselves for this and the EIT Digital Accelerator is the perfect partner for our international scaling.”

After a successful 2017, trinckle is looking toward 2018 and preparing to meet the needs of an ever-growing industry.

“We have quite some plans for next year,” said Reichle. “We want to strengthen our position as the primary partner for design automation and product configuration. And not only in Germany, but throughout Europe and the USA. With the pan-European network of EIT Digital, we are well positioned for this.”

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[Images provided by trinckle]