Reinventing design and manufacturing for the 3D-printing age sounds more capital-intensive than your run-of-the-mill social networking app. Thus to fund its growth, Shapeways, a Dutch company now headquartered in New York, just announced $6.2 million in financing led by Lux Capital, which the company says is an add-on to the $5.1 million series B round raised from Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures last November.
Lux Capital doesn’t typically fund consumer-facing startups. According to its website, the Madison Avenue venture capital firm has been more concerned with cancer therapies and petroleum replacements, which is a vote of confidence in Shapeways’ potential. “We seek investment opportunities to help turn technical breakthroughs into world-changing businesses,” Lux cofounder Josh Wolfe said on the company’s blog.
Peter Weijmarshausen, the company’s CEO, said the funds will go toward expanding its “creative commerce” model, which lets independent designers easily create products in 3D, without knowledge of modeling software, and then manufacture their products on demand. Material choices now include colored ceramics and our personal favorite, fully-flexible Elasto Plastic. Mr. Weijmarshausen also added that Lux Capital’s network in New York and familiarity with commercializing emerging technologies will help with that “factory of the future” they’re building out in Long Island City.
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to the $6.2 million in funding as a Series C.
