ARRIS Raises $34M for Composites 3D Printing from Bosch and Others

ARRIS Composites, a Berkeley-based supplier of parts made from composites using a proprietary production process, has raised $34 million in a funding round participated in by companies including Bosch Ventures and Zebra Technologies. ARRIS’s advanced manufacturing approach, which it calls ‘Additive Molding’, combines additive manufacturing (AM) and high-speed complex molding production to optimize performance for a number of parameters including stiffness, strength, and lightness.

The versatility and scalability of the ARRIS manufacturing ecosystem enables the company to serve a diverse range of verticals, including multiple different consumer markets as well as critical sectors like automotive and aerospace. ARRIS plans to use its latest funding to accelerate its push to scale globally, following two notable releases so far in 2024 yielded by Additive Molding: Brooks Running’s launch of the Hyperion Elite 4, which hit stores in February and include an ARRIS carbon fiber plate in the midsole, and the line of next-generation bicycle spokes that ARRIS announced in January.

In a press release about ARRIS Composites’ $34 million funding round, Jeffrey Lam, the President of Commercial Aerospace at ST Engineering — one of the participants in the round — said, “The use of composite structures in aerospace applications offers a compelling combination of weight savings, strength, durability, and environmental sustainability. Through our investment in ARRIS, we will jointly develop innovative composite products that elevate ST Engineering’s aerospace solutions, providing more value adds and benefits to our customers.”

Rae Eun Sung, Group Vice Chairman and CEO of Youngone Holdings, another of the round’s participants, said, “ARRIS’ dedication to hard work, innovation, and sustainability aligns with our foundational principles — we take pride in our reputation as a continuous pioneer, and ARRIS is on a similar path. We see the expansive potential in cutting-edge composites and look to ARRIS for novel product differentiation.”

In 2024, there seems to only be an increase of one of the strongest AM investing trends from 2023, which saw service providers supplying parts instead of printers garnering the highest-profile attention. A key difference here is that, whereas in 2023, the trend largely surrounded metal AM, ARRIS is of course in the composites space.

This is notable insofar as more or less the same investment principles seem to be driving capital into AM no matter the material, with the combination of AM and techniques from tooling industries being an especially pronounced angle. It’s also always an optimistic sign for the AM industry to see the user base putting its own money into additive technologies.

Finally, one thing to watch, in particular, when it comes to ARRIS, is how the US’s attempt to gain traction in the global EV race might impact the company’s activities going forward. As has been already mentioned, composite AM is clearly a quite multifaceted space, but there is also unusually cohesive strategic alignment between ARRIS’ corporate mission and the key factors propelling the EV market.