Israel’s Magnus Metal Raises $74M for its Digital Casting Process

Magnus Metal, an Israeli advanced manufacturing startup specializing in the production of machines that leverage a proprietary process incorporating both casting and additive manufacturing (AM) principles, has raised $74 million in a Series B round led by Tel Aviv venture capital fund, Entrée Capital, and Target Global, a venture capital fund based in Berlin. Caterpillar Ventures, the venture arm of the global construction and mining equipment giant, also participated in the round.

Magnus Metal’s trademark Digital Casting process relies on the creation of ceramic molds designed with a slicer, with metals then added to each mold layer by layer. According to the company, its technology enables users to manufacture parts with widely-available solid metals rather than powders, and its machines will have throughput capabilities of one ton per day.

Magnus’ co-founder and CEO, Boaz Vinogradov, told TechCrunch, “This [round] is going to take us into industrialization this year and beta testing beginning of next year. The goal is to use this funding to have an industrial machine that is quite robust that the customers finished testing.” The CEO also told TechCrunch that, in addition to machines, Magnus also sells the proprietary ceramic materials used for the molds in Digital Casting.

Cylinder block of a truck engine

In a press release, Ran Achituv from Entrée Capital said, “We co-led this investment based on customers’ demand for Magnus Metal’s solution in order to on-shore production lines to overcome supply chain and quality issues. Digital Casting is the only technology that allows reduction of production cost, meeting environmental regulation, meeting and surpassing quality standards and increase business agility with shortened delivery time and increased customization. It is the only solution that doesn’t require new engineering and design as it digitally casts parts using the current customer’s raw materials.”

Magnus Metal has developed the Digital Casting, which blends the benefits taken from both AM and traditional casting, while avoiding the typical associated deficiencies – this enables a streamlined supply-chain, digital inventory and remote manufacturing hubs.

There aren’t many companies that do it yet, but the combination of casting and 3D printing into one process does look like an approach that has begun to carve out a niche in the AM industry. Ohio’s Skuld recently opened a foundry centered around its proprietary additive manufacturing evaporative casting (AMEC) method, while New Zealand’s Foundry Lab debuted its Digital Metal Casting platform at Formnext 2022, and formed a partnership with global power management giant Eaton last fall.

Another significant theme that Magnus’ big funding round encapsulates is the potential return to form for Israeli tech startups, which in 2023 “hit an 8-year low”. It is notable that the same factors driving investment in Magnus Metals were also behind another recent major funding round for an Israeli startup, supply chain digitization firm Sensos’ $20 million Series A in February.

In that sense, it may turn out that the 2023 VC lull is better characterized as a pivot, rather than as a sign that investors have soured on the Israeli market. Instead of repelling those scared off by geopolitical risk, the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East might simply be causing investors to reevaluate which spaces will give them the best opportunity for ROI.

Images courtesy of Magnus Metal