How is Digital Metal doing after their surprise acquisition by Markforged?
The Swedish company had been part of Hoganas for many years, but ultimately the metal powder manufacturer decided their 3D printer manufacturing arm would be best placed with a larger entity. That turned out to be Markforged.
Digital Metal is quite unusual in the world of metal 3D printing, as their equipment is capable of producing incredibly detailed solid metal parts. The images you can see in this post attest to that capability.
This chainmail mesh, for example, has not be post processed! This is how the metal parts emerge from the machine, sans loose powder. I’ve never seen such a finely structured 3D printed piece of chainmail as this, and it’s in metal, too.
Regarding the acquisition, it seems that the folks at Digital Metal are ecstatic. From their Scandinavian home they had less access to customers, but apparently that’s all changed now.
With the acquisition, Digital Metal equipment and services can now be sold through Markforged’s massive reseller network. We’re told that there are something close to 75 partners involved, and that is generating significantly more business for Digital Metal already.
But it’s not all roses: for each reseller added, Digital Metal itself has to beef up their staffing to handle the consequent management. To address that need, they’ve been staffing up in recent months.
Aside from the new resellers, Digital Metal is still selling their machines and materials directly from their website.
What about changes? Most acquirers make some changes in the acquired company, so is that happening here?
Apparently not. Digital Metal representatives tell us they are keeping the products the same, at least for now, and focusing on materials development. In fact, they just announced a new H13 tool steel metal to add to their rather wide set of metals usable in their equipment.
This is actually not surprising, because while the two companies both have metal 3D printing solutions, they are utterly different and don’t really overlap in the market. That’s one of the reasons Markforged made the decision to take on Digital Metal.
Ok, I lied. There is apparently one change to come: it’s rumored that Markforged will make some changes to the Digital Metal logo in the future.
Aside from that, it appears things are going swimmingly well for Digital Metal, and by corporate connection, Markforged.
Via Digital Metal
