Following the successful completion of Fathom’s (NYSE: FATH) initial public listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Chicago-based private equity firm CORE Industrial Partners has now acquired RE3DTECH, a 3D printing service bureau specializing in rapid prototyping and end-use part production. The move is part of CORE’s intention to form a new 3D printing platform to address the growing market for high-volume production needs and is in line with the firm’s wide investment portfolio in lower middle-market manufacturing, industrial technology, and industrial service companies.
Through the deal, CORE’s sector expertise and resources will help accelerate RE3DTECH’s growth. Moreover, CORE managing partner John May said he expects the company to grow both organically and through complementary acquisitions.
“Our investment in RE3DTECH represents an expansion of our thesis within the additive manufacturing sector to address the growing market for high-volume production needs. We believe CORE’s sector expertise and resources will prove highly impactful in accelerating the Company’s growth,” described May.
John May, Founder & Managing Partner, CORE Industrial Partners
Similarly, RE3DTECH’s CEO, Jim Teuber, added that the company was founded with the mission to provide customers with bespoke solutions utilizing the latest state-of-the-art technologies and that the partnership with CORE will help unlock the resources necessary to continue investing in cutting-edge capabilities and further enhance its customer value proposition.
Up until now, RE3DTECH has mainly invested in HP and Markforged systems to deliver prototypes and parts fast and efficiently in both polymers and metals. At its Grayslake, Illinois headquarters, the 3D printing business has built components for a wide variety of end markets, including aerospace and defense, consumer, technology, industrial, automotive, and medical.
Founded in 2017 by finance experts Teuber and Russell Beck, the 3D printing service bureau was created to develop partnerships with manufacturers to identify the proper material, technology, and geometry solutions that work best for a wide variety of applications. Furthermore, by moving from mass production to mass customization, providing industrial grade 3D printing services, access and capacity at the point of need, RE3DTECH was hoping to repatriate and revitalize the additive manufacturing industry.
Commenting on the acquisition, Teuber said “Our partnership with CORE Industrial Partners will enable us to keep our focus on Additive Production. This will enable us to be very reactive to capacity needs for the many production opportunities that we have helped our customers develop.”
Although both companies have announced there will be even more news about the new partnership in the next weeks, there was essentially no information disclosed as to the nature of the upcoming “platform,” how it will benefit the 3D printing industry, or whether the newly acquired RE3DTECH will be linked to CORE-backed Fathom, an on-demand digital manufacturing solutions provider that went public on December 27, 2021 after wrapping up a merger deal with a blank check firm.
Lately, there has been other news about companies building ecosystems or platforms that vaguely explain what the functionality of the new marketplace will be.
As 3DPrint.com Executive Editor Joris Peels explained in his latest opinion piece, “I’m bombarded daily by so many people building ‘ecosystems’, I think I’m living in a dog’s mouth or the Amazon river basin, so teeming with life is our 3D printing world. Everyone is building an ecosystem or a platform. I think that it’s generally very insightful to take a step back and conclude that it’s absurd that a lot of players in this industry seem to have exactly the same strategy. And if you ask them what an ecosystem is, or what matters, you get very different answers from all concerned.”
For now, CORE partner Matthew Puglisi has described the company’s interest in building upon a solid foundation to further expand its 3D printing services and geographic reach. At this rate, we can expect to hear a lot more from CORE, especially since this is the company’s thirteenth acquisition, but more importantly, the fourth acquisition in the 3D printing industry. Last year, CORE took over Michigan-based 3DXTECH, 3D printing filament provider Triton 3D, and industrial grade, open-source 3D printing machine provider Gearbox 3D.