Norsk Titanium Launches IPO for DED Metal 3D Printing on Euronext Growth Stock Market

Another day, another announcement for an initial public offering. This time, the company with plans to go public is Norwegian firm Norsk Titanium, which listed on the Euronext Growth Oslo market on May 18, 2021 under the ticker symbol NTI.

The firm has focused on directed energy deposition (DED) of titanium since it was founded in 2007. Though its first production machine, was not released until 2015, it produced several prototypes and established many crucial partners and investors in the interim years. This included backing from Arconic (previously Alcoa), a cooperation agreement with Airbus, and becoming an approved Boeing supplier. It was even during this time that it received $125 million from the state of New York to create a 3D printing facility in Plattsburgh.

The company has since established itself firmly in the aerospace segment. First, it produced the world’s first 3D-printed, FAA-approved structural aircraft part for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This was followed by the first 3D printed integrally bladed rotor, which has undergone a second round of testing, and will likely be topped by a landing gear structure for Safran. Now that it is in production for the 787 component with its customer Spirit AeroSystems, the company has become an important player in the additive space by demonstrating the possibility of DED metal 3D printing for structural end parts.

That same Norsk blank machine finished to final shape. Image courtesy of Norsk Titanium.

Norsk has taken advantage of the large amount of investment activity in additive manufacturing and launched on Euronext after issuing private shares totaling $38 million. This included $15 million investments from leading shareholders represented on the Board of Directors and $10 million from the Norwegian Ferd AS investment company, one of the largest privately held businesses in the country. Ferd describes itself as family-owned, but it’s no mom-and-pop. The Andresens are descended from a line of Norwegian politicians, industrialists, and nobility. The daughter of the company’s owner, Alexandra Andersen, was the world’s youngest billionaire for three years in a row.

With the funds, Norsk aims to expand its technology, including into new verticals. CEO Michael Canario spoke to this, saying:

“Today marks an important milestone for Norsk Titanium. The funding enabled through the Euronext Growth listing will support our ongoing development activities with our commercial customers as well as assist the transition of our technology into new markets such as defense and industrial applications. I would like to thank our advisors and the extraordinary team at Norsk Titanium who made this possible.”

Norsk Titanium joins a growing list of firms that have either already launched IPOs since the end of 2020—such as Desktop Metal, Massivit 3D and MeaTech—as well as others that intend to do so this year, including Rokit Healthcare, Markforged, VELO3D, Rocket Lab and Shapeways. The publicly traded 3D printing space is getting so crowded that this list is getting too long to remember.

Norsk sets itself apart as very focused on both one technology and one material. As it enters the military and industrial spaces, will it also expand from being a single-process, single-metal company? One would think it would be inevitable but qualifying just these two items for various aerospace customers has been so intensive that it takes several years to even get to full production.