COBOD received an investment from a partner that will certainly raise the stakes in the battle for construction 3D print supremacy.
The Danish company has been producing construction 3D printers quite successfully for several years. Their current model, the BOD 2, has been used in a variety of projects around the world to construct buildings, some even three stories tall.
But here’s the thing: building a construction 3D printer and building things with a construction 3D printer are very, very different. COBOD needs partners in the construction industry to use their equipment on customer projects.
They’ve been quite successful so far in obtaining these partnerships, and apparently have recently signed up even more partners. Many of their projects have been partnerships with PERI Group, a large European construction firm based in Germany. PERI Group boasts annual revenues of €1.5B (US$1.6B), so it is by no means a small operation. The two have successfully completed multiple projects on several continents in a wide variety of environments.
The news is that COBOD has a new investor: PERI Group. Evidently the construction firm was more than satisfied with the work done so far with COBOD, and decided to invest themselves.
Normally a new investor is not big news, but I believe there’s something quite important here.
The construction 3D printer space is not crowded, and there are relatively few players as compared to the thermoplastic 3D printing sector. You can probably count them on one (or maybe two) hands.
Most of these companies are in experimental mode to various degrees, but only a few have hit big time investment. The most notable is ICON, who have attracted nearly half a billion dollars in investment, which will certainly allow that company to expand greatly.
At the time of the ICON investment, I wondered how the huge cash reserves of ICON would position them against their competitors, the most notable of which is likely COBOD. It’s hard to compete against that much cash.
But now it seems that COBOD has a sugar daddy in PERI Group, which will certainly provide COBOD with significant additional resources, as well as project commitments, which themselves will generate even more revenue. The act of PERI Group’s investment will be noted by other construction firms, who may also consider partnering with one or more of the construction 3D printer manufacturers.
PERI Group also will now act as a distributor for COBOD’s products in more regions, including Poland, Benelux, France and the US states of Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Illinois, and Indiana. COBOD said:
“The aim of the expanded COBOD PERI cooperation is to leverage the significant know-how PERI has obtained related to 3D construction printing to the benefit of more markets in Europe and the US.”
To me, this sounds like ICON will have some competition.
Via COBOD and PERI Group
