Markforged Raises $82 Million

Boston-based Markforged has announced an $82 million Series D funding round.

The company has been dedicated to strength since its founding in 2013, and the latest founding round certainly adds a new layer of strength to operations. Clocking in at more than twice the already significant Series C round in late 2017 where Markforged pulled in an impressive $30M, the Series D round represents another major step forward for the young company.

The round was led by Summit Partners, with existing partners both strategic and financial contributing as well. Matrix Partners, M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund, Next47, and Porsche SE rounded out the round.

$82M is a hefty haul, and Markforged plans to put the new flow to expand in terms of both product line and global presence. The product roadmap “including the introduction of mass production printers and new materials” will accelerate, while global expansion is also in sight.

Announced intentions are pretty ambitious — though Markforged is certainly not alone in looking to 3D printing as a technology that will “reshape the $12 trillion manufacturing industry” — but behind the ambition is an already-established series of successes. Last year, the company reports having shipped more than 2,500 industrial 3D printers, working with customers in more than 40 countries. Markforged has also filed 133 patents and been issued 38.

The team has also been hard at work on the new product introductions. New materials, for example, have been shown for the Metal X system.

Markforged solutions are providing an interesting perspective to the conversation around the growth of additive manufacturing, and that conversation is one the company continues to facilitate.

And the broader manufacturing industry is taking notice, as today’s investment announcement notes.

“We have been actively monitoring the additive manufacturing market for the last decade and are excited to partner with the Markforged team,” said Michael Medici, a Managing Director at Summit Partners who has joined the company’s Board of Directors. “Markforged has been quietly executing at an incredible pace for the last five years, delivering exceptional products that solve real-world industrial manufacturing needs. Greg and his team are focused on continued product innovation, and we believe the best is yet to come for Markforged and its customers.”

The Series D brings total funding up to $139 million. Forbes cites Pitchbook in noting that Markforged’s most recent public valuation, as of November 2017, was $300 million. Markforged CEO and Co-Founder Greg Mark also told Forbes that specific plans for the new funding include to double its current team of 83 engineers and to open offices in Dublin and the Asia/Pacific region.

The path toward growth hasn’t always been smooth for Markforged, but certainly the company is well positioned to continue toward developing strong, viable solutions for industrial 3D printing.

Via Markforged