Medical point-of-care 3D printing gets a boost through a multi-million-euro investment.
Kumovis, the young Munich-based endeavor that introduced us last year to the concept of a 3D printer integrating clean room capabilities, has announced the closing of its Series A funding round. The company’s R1 3D printer has been on the market since August 2019, and Kumovis has continued to work toward new advances in medical 3D printing.
We’ve been keeping up with the company recently, as they’ve shared with us a look at their point-of-care 3D printing ecosystem and work toward integrating the technology more deeply into the medical industry.
Kumovis Series A
Now with the Series A funding round closed, Kumovis will have more room to move toward the next goals they’ve told us about, including a more user-friendly experience and expanded materials capabilities.
The funding round is bringing €3.6 million into Kumovis’ next steps. Seed investors High-Tech Gründerfonds and Ffilipa Venture Capital participated in the round, which was led by Renolit SE and Solvay Ventures.
Solvay in particular is an interesting investor to see named here, as that company has been expanding its own presence in the additive manufacturing industry over the last few years. Some of their materials introductions, in fact, should be interesting here; at Formnext 2018 the company filled us in on some medical-grade materials including PEEK, carbon-filled PEEK, and PPSU filaments.
Kumovis’ announcement indeed notes that it is working “to establish industrial additive manufacturing systems for processing high-performance polymers” — just like those from Solvay.
“By accelerating the transition to personalized medicine, Kumovis and Solvay will expand together the application space for high-performance specialty polymers in healthcare, and have the potential to do so in other industries as well,” said Stéphane Roussel, Managing Director of Solvay Ventures.
The announcement also indicates interest in improving the R1, entering new markets, and accelerating growth, including growth of the Kumovis team.
“The flexibility of the Kumovis R1 system, which fulfills medical manufacturing requirements, is particularly advantageous to manufacturers dealing with small-series production and patient-adapted products. By providing an open materials 3D printing system capable of processing a variety of thermoplastic polymers, we enable our customers to not only produce on-demand but also to 3D print end-use parts at the point of care. At Kumovis, we are looking forward to taking the next steps together with our strong partners,” said Dr. Miriam Haerst, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Kumovis.
Decentralizing Medical Supply Chains
The primary goal for Kumovis aligns neatly with that of much of 3D printing in general: to shorten the supply chain.
In focus here is of course the medical supply chain, as Kumovis seeks to reduce the time-to-patient (rather than the more broad time-to-market) for needed medical devices and products. Patient-specific 3D printing at the point of care can mean, for example, quickly produced personalized implants that will be just the right fit. Compare this to an off-the-shelf implant, which requires additional time in the operating room to make fit to a patient.
“The launch of the Kumovis R1 3D printer in 2019 pushed additive manufacturing with medical polymers to the next level regarding mechanical properties, aesthetics, reproducibility and usability. We are convinced that the partnerships with Renolit, a leader in polymer-based medical device components, and Solvay, a world leader in high-performance specialty polymers, will strengthen our business case and accelerate the sustainable development of Kumovis. We will use the investments to enter new markets, further develop our technology and help the medical community bring 3D-printed medical products to the patient,” said Stefan Leonhardt, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Kumovis.
We can expect to hear much more from Kumovis as they put the investment to use in further advancing point-of-care 3D printing with its technology and materials partners.
Via Kumovis
