Crowdfunding site Kickstarter has served as a launchpad for dozens of promising business ideas and products. But it’s rare that a company that has gotten its start on the platform goes on to raise a Series A round of $19 million.
Formlabs, the Somerville-based creators of the Form 1 desktop 3D printer, announced this morning that the startup has raised a massive $19 million in Series A financing. The round was led by DFJ Growth, along with Pitango Venture Capital, Innovation Endeavors and many returning angel investors. According to the release, the company will put the money towards expanding product, design and research teams, in addition to growing its marketing and customer support efforts internationally.
The startup’s Kickstarter campaign took off last fall, raising $2.95 million, well over its $100,000 funding goal, from more than 2,000 backers in over 35 different countries. Over the past six months, Formlabs has shipped over 900 of its original Form 1 3D printers to its earliest Kickstarter investors–an impressive accomplishment for the Formlabs’ team that, as of a year ago, had only one working prototype to its name.
The Form 1 leverages stereolithography technology to achieve sharp resolution and produce with high-quality detail, putting other desktop 3D printers, like low-end FDM machines, to shame.
"There is still a wide open space in front of us to continue innovating and bringing incredible new products to the market? with these new resources, we’ll be able to continue to push the envelope, making extraordinary new tools available around the world,” cofounder Maxim Lobovsky said in the release. “The group we’re putting together to get here is the most creative and passionate team working in 3D printing and I’m personally excited about using this new investment to grow our team and take digital fabrication to the next level.”
The company also has plans to announce the PreForm 1.0, an accompanying powerful yet easy-to-use 3D printing software, that enables even the most inexperienced users to print elaborate 3D models “with just a few mouse clicks,” according to the release.
Going along with the company’s tremendous first full round of venture funding, Formlabs will be expanding into a 11,000 square-foot space in Somerville.
“We’re going to use every inch. There’s a lot of work to do, so we are thrilled to have DFJ and Pitango onboard,” said cofounder Natan Lider. “We’re looking forward to expanding internationally and bringing a professional 3D printing experience to people around the world.”
DFJ Managing Growth Director Barry Schuler will also join Formlabs’ Board of Directors. Schuler is a cofounded to DFJ Growth Fund in 2006, and has since invested in Twitter, Tesla Motors, Tumblr, SolarCity and SpaceX. He also serves on the boards of Good Technology, Radiance Inc. Synthetics Genomics and SClenergy.
Formlabs was founded in 2011 by three designers and engineers from the MIT Media Lab.
