Swiss carbon fiber 3D printing specialist 9T Labs has raised $17 million in Series A funding to fully commercialize its Red Series Additive Fusion Solution platform. The platform, which combines 3D printing and compression molding technologies, is designed to produce advanced carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite parts, with annual output ranging from 100 to over 100,000.
Currently backed by industrial 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys and several other major investors, 9T Labs is seeking to fully commercialize the platform to produce end-use parts for the aerospace, automotive, medical, industrial and consumer goods industries.
9T Labs carbon fiber 3D printing technology
Founded in 2018 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich, 9T Labs aims to make carbon fiber composites as easy to use as normal metal materials through 3D printing. The company's Red Series Additional Fusion Solution platform is an end-to-end 3D printing package consisting of hardware, software and engineering support services.
At the heart of the platform is 9T Labs' Build module, an extrusion-based fiber-laminate 3D printer designed specifically for printing carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites. On the software side, the platform includes the company's Fibrify software, which allows users to import 3D CAD files, design composite parts and optimize fiber layup, among other functions.
The Red Series Additional Fusion Solution platform is suitable for functional prototyping and numerous end applications across a range of industries from aerospace, motorsport, robotics to sporting goods.
Back in 2020, 9T Labs closed a $4.5 million seed funding round as the company aims to further develop its carbon fiber 3D printing technology and increase its use cases for large-scale manufacturing. Last November, industrial parts supplier Setforge invested in the company's Red Series 3D printers to replace steel, aluminum and titanium parts with lightweight, low-cost 3D-printed composite materials.
$17 million capital injection
9T Labs' latest capital injection will be used for the full commercialization of its Red Series platform and to fund the company's next phase of growth. This investment will allow the company to help its customers scale up their 3D printing applications to high volume, while also supporting the development of its current materials portfolio and future technology platforms.
Martin Eichenhofer, co-founder and CEO of 9T Labs, said: "This round of investment, combined with the expertise of our partners, will allow us to take the next big leap in commercialization and fulfill our mission to achieve Fully recyclable high-performance carbon composites widely replace metal parts. With this support, we will be able to demonstrate things we could not have imagined 10 years ago.”
In addition to Stratasys, lead investors in the Series A round include Solvay Ventures, the venture capital arm of thermoplastic composites supplier Solvay SA, as well as venture capital firms Verve Ventures, ACE & Company, Zurcher Kantonalbank and Wingman Ventures.
Adam Pawloski, Vice President of Manufacturing Solutions at Stratasys, said: "9T Labs' combination of the simplicity of 3D printing with the strength of continuous carbon fiber composites is an exciting development for our industry. Their additive fusion technology leverages The advantages of printing, automated tape laying and compression molding are used to provide full density parts with multi-directional reinforcement. In addition, this technology can be scaled to the number of production parts required by serial manufacturers. The end result is very likely to be The industry moves from metal to composite parts.”
The former CEO of binder jet 3D printer maker ExOne John Hartner will join the 9T Labs board of directors as chairman following the closing of the funding round.