Azul3D secures $12.5 million seed financing to advance high-area rapid printing technology
3D-printing tech startup, Azul3D, has secured $12.5 million in an oversubscribed seed financing. Azul 3D will use the capital to advance its proprietary high-area rapid printing (HARPTM) technology and launch its first commercial printers.
Through this round, Azul 3D added several new key backers to its growing investor pool, including:
Louis A. Simpson, former CIO for Geico, former manager of Berkshire Hathaway and founder of SQ Advisors
Wally Loewenbaum, former chairperson of 3D Systems
Joe Allison, former CEO of Stratasys Direct Manufacturing
Hugh Evans, former senior vice president of corporate development for 3D Systems
Chad Mirkin, cofounder and chair, Azul3D: “Investors recognize the paradigm shifting and disruptive nature of Azul’s proprietary HARP 3D printing technology. “The company intends to secure major partnerships validating this point in the very near future.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the company’s subsidiaries demonstrated such capabilities using its instrumentation to print personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospitals, prisons, first responders and members of the Navajo Nation.
David Walker, cofounder and chief technology officer, Azul 3D: “One of the reasons we’re doing so well is because our technology offers a solution to unexpected surges in demand and supply-chain bottlenecks that occur during global crises, such as in the current pandemic. With the ability to manufacture nearly anything quickly and on demand, we can meet these unexpected needs as they arise to quickly fill gaps in the supply chain. That’s the big difference between HARP and traditional manufacturing as well as many other forms of 3D printing, which either don’t have the throughput or material properties to meet the required specifications. We don’t have to change a whole assembly line or machine new molds. The concerns that accompany a stressed supply chain simply vanish.”
Using HARP, the Azul 3D team is now producing medical face shields at a record rate of 1,000 components per printer in a 12-hour shift.
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