Inkbit, the company that built the first 3D printer fueled by AI and vision-based feedback control, has announced the closing of a US$ 12 mn equity financing round spearheaded by Stratasys & DSM Venturing—Royal DSM’s venture capital arm.
The proceeds will allow Inkbit to flex its muscles and sufficiently equip its material jetting AM technology to keep up with the requirements of multi-material and volume manufacturing. Under the aegis of the funding, the company intends to expand its materials portfolio meant for robotics sectors, life science and medical and apparently install the first units for customers.
The funding round also witnessed investments from 3M, Saint-Gobain, and Ocado, that follows on the company’s first US$2.8 mn round spearheaded by IMA in late December. The company has also received finance from National Science Foundation, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and MassVentures.
Inkbit cofounder and CEO Davide Marini reportedly said that the company is ecstatic to join hands with an exceptional team of industry players whose commitment to innovation and entrepreneurial skills have left him in awe. He further stated that each investor will utilize his prowess and adroitness in application in robots, high-performance materials, equipment manufacturing, life science tools and medical devices.
The CEO further went on to add that the composition of the syndicate is expected to expedite the development and commercialization of the platform as they vie to add a layer of machine learning and machine vision to material jetting to propel its reliability, accuracy and enable its application with production-grade materials.
Ronen Lebi, Vice President of Corporate Development at Stratasys, echoed the lines of David Marini and said he is thrilled to assist Inkbit in bringing their technology to the factory. He deduced that artificial intelligence and vision-based feedback control will take additive manufacturing to a cusp revolution and will foster its ubiquitous use for production.
Inkbit has developed a contactless material jetting process to obliterate the need for planarization and unlock the ability to print multi-material parts with production-grade materials.
The company, which has begun working with high profile customers such as Johnson & Johnson is on course to release its first system in 2021. The $12 million investment will complement Inkbit’s audacious path, claim sources.
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