Desktop Metal Raises $115 Million for 3D Printing Technology

If one thing is certain, it’s no doubt been an exciting year for Desktop Metal, a company working to make metal 3D printing attainable and safe for engineering teams. 

Case in point, the company most recently announced on Monday (July 17) the completion of its $115 million Series D investment round to advance its first lot of 3D printing systems. The latest round of funding comes roughly five months after Desktop Metal had raised $45 million from giants such as Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), BMW (ETR:BMW), and Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW). To date, the company’s investments total roughly $212 million.

Ric Fulop, CEO and co-founder of Desktop Metal, said in the company’s press release that the funding will be used to advance its speed to market, help grow its sale programs, and progress the development of advanced R&D.

“We are on the brink of an exciting transformation in how metal parts will be designed, prototyped, and ultimately mass produced,” Fulop said in the release. “This latest funding puts us in an ideal position to ship our Studio System in the coming months and our Production System in 2018, while also enabling us to grow our company globally.”

Desktop Metal also took to Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) to make the announcement:

We’re excited to announce our Series D funding, w/support from our strategic partners @NEA, @GVteam, @GE_Ventures, & others https://t.co/NHUMawEGmh

— Desktop Metal (@DesktopMetal) July 17, 2017

As noted in the above tweet, the company’s Series D funding comes from venture firms including: New Enterprise Associates, GV (formerly Google Ventures), GE Ventures, Future Fund, and Techtronic Industries.

According to Desktop’s press release, the new round of funding comes just three months after it launched two metal 3D printing systems entailing the full product life cycle: the Studio System, which is the first office-friendly metal 3D printing system, and the Product System, which is the only 3D printing system for mass production of high resolution metal parts.

Dayna Grayson, a partner with New Enterprise Associates, told CNBC that Desktop Metal has “developed a product that solves a very technologically complex problem in a about 18 months.”

“We re-upped our investment seeing their ability to execute, and because we believe there’s a very large, addressable market here,” Grayson continued.

CNBC further reported that the company is shipping its first Studio systems in the fall, which will cost roughly $120,000, or leased for $3,250 per month instead.  In 2018, Desktop Metal will ship the printer to businesses that mass produce metals who want to use 3D printers directly on the factor floor at a whopping price of $4200,000.

“We have seen demand from all around the world,” Fulop told CNBC. “But the U.S. is still where we see the most, and that is to be expected. This country is very much the leader in research, design and innovation for hardware, whether you’re talking about autonomous vehicles or consumer electronics.”

Indeed, while there’s certainly an exciting future bubbling for this 3D printing start-up, whether the company plans to go public has yet to be determined.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Jocelyn Aspa, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.