3-D Printer Maker Carbon3D Raises $100 Million From Google Ventures, Others

Carbon3D, whose 3-D printing technology uses light and oxygen to make 3-D objects from a pool of resin, has also apparently honed an ability to print money.

The company is announcing Thursday it has raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by Google Ventures. Other participants include Yuri Milner, Reinet Investments and FIS as well as previous backers Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake Kraftwerk and Northgate Capital.

While there are a host of 3-D printers out there, most produce objects that are best suited as prototypes. By contrast, Carbon3D has its sights set on production-quality goods for the automotive, medical and manufacturing industries. Ford is among the handful of customers testing one of its printers.

“We’ll be placing a couple dozen more this calendar year and expect general availability early next year,” Carbon3D CEO Joseph DeSimone said in an interview. The company has not yet said how much its printers will cost.

Carbon3D debuted its technology earlier this year at the Ted conference in Vancouver. Since then, the company has roughly doubled its workforce and now has 80 employees.

DeSimone said Google’s interest began when Larry Page and Sergey Brin saw the company’s 3-D printer at Ted. The notion of being 100 times faster than today’s printing technologies hit home, he said.

“Our speed story resonated really, really well,” DeSimone said.

Here’s an interview I did with DeSimone at Ted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4heBuUmx0U

And here’s the printer in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpH1zhUQY0c

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via