Desktop Metal closes $65 million in new Ford-led financing
March 20, 2018
Desktop Metal, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA, has received $65 million in new financing led by Ford Motor Company, with participation from existing investor Future Fund. This brings the company’s total funding to-date to $277 million.
According to Ric Fulop, CEO and co-founder of Desktop Metal, the strategic partnership with Ford will continue to fuel the company’s growth and R&D, as well as enabling Desktop Metal to accelerate its momentum in delivering scalable metal AM technologies worldwide. Dr Ken Washington, Vice President of Research and Advanced Engineering and Chief Technology Officer at Ford Motor Company, will join Desktop Metal’s board of directors.
“The age of metal 3D manufacturing is here and this strategic partnership with Ford, along with our portfolio of investors, validates our vision to transform the way metal parts will be designed and mass produced,” stated Fulop. “The continued support of our investors underscores the power of our metal 3D printing solutions to help engineers and manufacturers, for the first time, apply metal 3D printing for the entire product development lifecycle – from prototyping to mass producing complex, high-performance metal parts in a cost-effective way.”
Founded in 2015, Desktop Metal offers two metal AM systems for the prototyping and production stages of part design. The company’s Studio System™ is said to be the first office-friendly metal AM system for rapid prototyping and is reportedly ten times less expensive than existing technologies. To manufacture metal AM parts at scale and in high resolution, the company’s Production System™, which uses its proprietary Single Pass Jetting (SPJ) technology, is reported to be capable of manufacturing parts a hundred times faster than laser-based systems.
Prior to Ford Motor Company, Desktop Metal has been funded by a portfolio of strategic partners and investors including New Enterprise Associates, Future Fund, GV (formerly Google Ventures), GE Ventures, BMW iVentures, Techtronic Industries, Lowe’s, Lux Capital, Vertex Ventures, Moonrise Venture Partners, DCVC Opportunity, Tyche, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Shenzhen Capital Group (SCGC), Saudi Aramco and Stratasys.
