Additive Drives secures $1.5 million investment from AM Ventures
October 17, 2020
Additive Drives GmbH, Dresden, Germany, a developer and manufacturer of additively manufactured electric motor components, has reported a $1.5 million seed investment from AM Ventures Holding GmbH, Munich, Germany.
The financing round is intended to further advance the company’s market launch, and in addition scaling the business in the area of prototyping, high-performance series applications are also expected to be enabled. Using metal Additive Manufacturing, Additive Drives is reported to increase the performance and efficiency of electric machines.
Electric drives are a growth market in which Additive Manufacturing can offer significant benefits. Arno Held, Chief Venture Officer at AM Ventures, stated on the investment, “Additive Manufacturing is becoming more mature and is increasingly opening up applications that are revolutionising entire industries. Additive Drives is a perfect example of this.”
“With dramatically accelerated development times and massive improvements in weight, volume and performance, this product will contribute to electrifying not only motor sports, aviation and micro-mobility,” he added.
Dr Jakob Jung, CEO and co-founder of Additive Drives, commented, “Since our foundation in July 2020 we have successfully entered the automotive market. Our vision is to halve the development time for electric motors and to expand our technological leadership in additive-manufactured electric motors”.
The AM of electric motor components, especially windings, enables varying designs to be validated quickly and easily without the need for tools. Application-optimised geometries can also be realised for series applications which are not feasible with conventional manufacturing, enabling performance increases of up to 45%.
As well as AM Ventures, the company is supported by the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Saxeed, and other universities and established commercial enterprises. At the chair for AM at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, the team is conducting an Exist research transfer project, which, in addition to the investment, is expected to enable further development and scaling of the technology.
“AM Ventures’ financial support, as well as its expert knowledge and network, allow us to grow faster and more sustainable,” added Dr Jung.
Learn more about AM Ventures in Metal AM magazine
In an industry driven by innovation, start-ups play a vital role in creating the next generation of AM technologies, applications, software solutions and materials. However, only a small percentage of these start-ups will survive, and even fewer will thrive.
In the Spring 2020 issue of Metal AM magazine (Vol. 6 No. 1), Arno Held, Chief Venture Officer at AM Ventures, presented a statistical analysis of start-ups across the AM sector, including success rates, geographic distribution and key areas of focus, and offered his insight into venture capital as it relates to the Additive Manufacturing industry.
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