- Digital manufacturing platform company Carbon has raised more than $260 million co-led by Madrone Capital Partners and Baillie Gifford
- This round of funding gives Carbon a valuation of more than $2 billion.
Digital manufacturing platform company Carbon has raised over $260 million in growth funding co-led by Madrone Capital Partners and Baillie Gifford. New investors Temasek and Arkema joined the round with participation from existing investors like Sequoia Capital, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC), Fidelity Management & Research Company, adidas Ventures, and JSR Corporation. Including this round, Carbon has raised more than $680 million total.
It is unknown exactly what Carbon’s valuation is based on the round. According to VentureBeat’s sources, Carbon reportedly now has a $2.4 billion valuation though.
“With the Carbon Platform, powered by our Digital Light Synthesis technology, companies are finally breaking free of the constraints of traditional polymer manufacturing methods to make what’s next now, and at speeds and volumes never before possible,” said Carbon CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Joseph DeSimone.
Carbon is planning to use this round of funding to expand R&D efforts, establishing its first Advanced Development Facility (ADF), and to fuel international growth and expansion in Europe and Asia.
And Carbon will be using the funding to invest in its ongoing development of recyclable and biocompatible materials along with accelerating the expansion of its software capabilities including Carbon’s Digital Manufacturing Cloud.
“At Baillie Gifford, we seek to invest in companies capable of delivering transformational growth over the long term,” explained Peter Singlehurst — Investment Manager at Baillie Gifford. “Through a combination of technical and business model innovation, Carbon is delivering on the promise of additive manufacturing, and in the process growing rapidly into an enormous opportunity. The thoughtful way in which the team at Carbon is building the company and the strong emphasis on the values and culture of the organization make us incredibly proud to support the company in their growth round.”
The ADF is going to enable Carbon’s engineering teams to improve its platform and workflows in scaled-up manufacturing environments to better support its customers and partners. And these strategic areas of investment will allow Carbon to continue delivering on the promise of 3D printing by enabling its customers in industries such as healthcare, automotive, and consumer goods to accelerate product innovation and create innovative products that are digitally manufactured at scale.
Carbon’s software objectives will emphasize automated design tools focused on algorithmic lattice generation along with improved digital factory workflow like fleet monitoring, quality control, and compliance information management.
As part of the expansion plan, Carbon is going to continue developing and improving the automation, monitoring, and analytics software that enables large-scale production on the Carbon Platform.
“What impresses me about Carbon is their diversification across markets and industries,” added Greg Penner — founder and general partner at Madrone Capital Partners and chairman of Walmart. “Through their partnerships with large-scale manufacturers in automotive, healthcare, and consumer goods, they are proving that, with their Digital Light Synthesis™ technology, additive manufacturing in larger scale production is becoming a reality across industry sectors. This is an inflection point for the company, and we’re proud to be able to contribute to Carbon’s future success.”
Carbon was founded in 2013 and expanded to more than 400 employees since then. And the company has team expansion plans that include investing in the company’s sales, marketing, and customer experience.
“Carbon has cracked the code on 3D printing at scale, as evidenced by its impressive growth in implementation and products brought to market with companies such as adidas, Ford, Lamborghini, and Riddell,” added Sequoia Capital partner Jim Goetz. “They are truly delivering on their vision to provide the world’s first fully integrated digital manufacturing platform for high-volume production, and they are well on their way to transforming the 3D printing world.”
Now Carbon is operational in 14 countries and the Carbon Platform has seen 33 times increase in print volumes over the past year and more than 5 times increase in print hours. Carbon also released 17 new third-party resins and three new first-party resins over the past year.
Carbon’s technology has been used by Ford for manufacturing polymer parts for the F-150 truck line and Riddell for next-generation helmet protection.
“Carbon’s business model is as innovative as its technology. It’s hybrid SaaS’ business model is an industry first for manufacturing, enabling a high level of predictability and recurring revenue,” noted Ellen Kullman — the Lead Director of Carbon and former Chairman and CEO of DuPont. “Having designed smart hardware from the ground up that is updatable via regular, over-the-air software upgrades, the team is ushering in a new era of high-tech manufacturing, one destined to unlock the full promise of Industry 4.0.”
