Source3, a 3D content licensing venture, has received USD$4M in seed funding investment.
The company is one of several seeking to establish viable businesses in “middle layers” the 3D printing ecosystem. It’s not just about materials and printers, there are far more opportunities to provide service – and make some money, too.
Source3 specializes in licensing deals. Previously we reported on their efforts to license game content, which they’ve successfully deployed online.
The investor in this case is Contour Venture Partners, who put forward USD$4M, purchasing an unknown portion of Source3. Their General Partner, Bob Greene, explained their interest:
Source3 is developing the processes and technologies necessary to unlock the availability and monetization of 3D content in the 3D ecosystem. The team has collectively realized more than $1B worth of licensed intellectual property during their careers. They have the experience and insight to make Source3 a huge success. We are thrilled to be investing in Source3 and to be joined by our investment syndicate partners.
Our thought on this is simple: it’s a good idea. There is an awful lot of popular content in the world, with more being created every day. Much of the most interesting content is currently held behind the fears of major corporations, who need ways of properly licensing the content into the 3D print world. Source3 aims to be the broker to do so.
Currently there is very limited access by 3D printing consumers to popular artistic content, but this could change if easy methods of licensing were available. Similarly, we can see licensing deals for non-artistic content, such as for spare parts, add-ons and more, which could also use licensing support.
Via Source3
