To Our Loyal Partners and Customers,
Today we announced that Carbon has raised $260+ million in our growth funding round co-led by Madrone Capital Partners and Baillie Gifford. The round also includes participation from new investors Temasek and Arkema, and from existing investors, Sequoia Capital, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC), Fidelity Management & Research Company, adidas Ventures, and JSR Corporation.
This brings our total fundraising to more than $680 million and signals how, at Carbon, we continue to execute our vision of disrupting the manufacturing industry. Our consistent growth speaks to the success of our customers and partners as they upgrade their analog manufacturing workflows to the digital factory of the future with the Carbon Platform. Now operational in 14 countries, over the past year we’ve seen a 33X increase in print volumes, and more than a 5X increase in print hours. In addition, we released 17 new third-party resins and three new first-party resins. I’m excited to share how we aim to further establish ourselves as the leading digital manufacturing platform while putting forth our vision for the continued exponential growth of our business over the next few years.
I’m incredibly proud of the Carbon team and the progress we’ve made so far in 2019:
- In January, at the Detroit Auto Show, Ford announced the first digitally manufactured polymer parts on production vehicles to come out of Detroit, with parts on the F-150 and Ford Mustang, and replacement parts for the Ford Focus. With injection-molded part quality and surface finish, digital manufacturing will allow automakers to more nimbly respond to the dynamic changes in the market and in complex supply chains.
- In February, during the Superbowl, we announced our partnership with Riddell to produce the first-ever, digitally printed helmet liner for the SpeedFlex Precision Diamond football helmet. We’re excited to help provide next-generation head protection for athletes and aim to continue to help advance the state-of-the-art in protective gear.
- Later in February, we unveiled our newest printer, the L1, which has 10X the build area of our first generation printer. The L1 is designed for immediate high-volume production, allowing customers to print many parts simultaneously.
- In March, at the world’s largest dental trade show, we released the industry’s first fully integrated digital manufacturing platform for dental and orthodontic labs designed for the rapidly expanding number of dental labs in our network. We also announced additional partnerships with third parties to broaden our portfolio of FDA-cleared dental materials.
- Earlier this month, ADIDAS launched the latest ALPHAEDGE 4D running shoe editions, now including Triple White, Core Black, Cloud White, and a Parley for Oceans edition. The upper portion of the Parley edition is made from Ocean Plastic material and is paired with the adidas 4D lattice midsole, built on the Carbon Platform. We’re proud to be working with partners committed to improving our environment and creating more sustainable products.
With this additional capital from our investors, we plan to:
- Expand R&D efforts to establish our first Advanced Development Facility (ADF), enabling our engineering teams to improve Carbon’s platform and workflows in scaled-up manufacturing environments to better support the needs, growth, and success of our customers and partners.
- Fuel international growth and expansion in Europe and Asia.
- Invest in our ongoing development of recyclable and biocompatible materials, continually improving the Carbon Platform and reflecting our company’s commitment to sustainability.
- Accelerate the expansion of our software capabilities, including Carbon’s Digital Manufacturing Cloud, emphasizing automated design tools focused on algorithmic lattice generation and improved digital factory workflow.
The key to achieving this is in our commitment to our customers’ success: in how well we enable our customers, in industries including healthcare, automotive, and consumer goods, to accelerate product innovation and create breakthrough products that are digitally manufactured at scale. With these strategic areas of investment, we’ll be able to continue focusing on making the most reliable digital manufacturing platform for our customers, and continue delivering on the promise of 3D printing. We’re excited to continue forging this path and creating this future with all of you.
Here are a few resources to learn more about our growth and journey:
“Big Bucks For 3-D Printing” – Forbes
“Carbon Valuation Exceeds $2.4B” – 3D Printing Industry
“This startup wants to 3D print your next running shoe or dentures” – CNET
We look forward to this exciting new phase of growth for our company and, most importantly, our next steps on this journey with you, our partners and customers. As Henry Ford wisely said, “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
Thank you for choosing Carbon. You make everything we do at Carbon possible, and we are so grateful for your support.
Sincerely,
Dr. Joseph DeSimone
CEO and Co-Founder of Carbon