San Diego-based additive manufacturing startup Fabric8Labs has closed a $19.3 million Series A financing round led by Intel Capital with syndicate partners including Lam Capital, TDK Ventures, SE Ventures, imec.xpand, Stanley Ventures, and Mark Cuban. The infusion of capital will enable Fabric8Labs to accelerate the commercialization of its novel manufacturing approach and to create new applications across multiple market verticals, including semiconductor packaging, electronics, medical, thermal management, and RF components.
"The capability to additively manufacture using multiple metals with high precision is highly compelling," said Jennifer Ard, Managing Director at Intel Capital. "Fabric8Labs' technology offers a unique option for future electronics applications."
Fabric8Labs' patented process rapidly fabricates complex metal parts at the atomic level, enabling superior feature resolution and enhanced material properties. The distinct approach eliminates the need for expensive metal powders and time-consuming post-processing, and the system operates near room temperature thus minimizing total energy consumption compared to legacy products.
Today's additive manufacturing market is valued at $12.8 billion and is estimated to grow to $153 billion by 2030. Fabric8Labs is focused on accelerating metal additive manufacturing adoption and has developed an IP portfolio that addresses critical customer pain points, such as high cost of ownership, unreliable material properties, and manual post-processing. Fabric8Labs currently is collaborating with key strategic partners to demonstrate its unique process in lucrative high-volume applications, leveraging mature technologies already proven at scale.
"We are thrilled to be supported by this syndicate of industry-leading investors, who recognize the disruptive potential that additive manufacturing presents," said Jeff Herman, co-founder and CEO of Fabric8Labs. "Our process represents a fundamental shift in additive manufacturing technologies, enabling high-volume manufacturing of parts at the atomic level via an energy efficient process that utilizes low-cost commodity metal salts. We are very excited to demonstrate, with the support of our investors, how our process will shape the future of manufacturing."
"Fabric8Labs' unique technology offers unprecedented precision, performance, and cost, while also allowing the feedstock to be recycled back into the process, thus minimizing waste and the environmental footprint," said Anil Achyuta, Investment Director who led TDK Ventures' investment into Fabric8Labs.
"Additive manufacturing is an important part of our development and innovation strategy," said Faran Nouri, managing director at Lam Capital. "Fabric8Labs' approach to metal additive manufacturing has disruptive potential and aligns with Lam Capital's mission to invest in forward thinking companies that address today's most challenging, high impact problems."
Schneider Electric's venture capital fund, SE Ventures, also participated in the Series A round. Grant Allen, General Partner at SE Ventures said: "We are very optimistic about Fabric8Labs' potential across a range of energy and industrial applications. From thermal management to fine-featured electrical connectors, and spanning datacenters, e-mobility, and other power products, we have just started to scratch the surface of Fabric8Labs' technology use cases."
Fabric8Labs received further backing from Seed Round investors imec.xpand, Mark Cuban, and Stanley Ventures. Dr. Cyril Vancura, imec.xpand Fund, who led the Seed round added: "At imec.xpand we are willing to take early-stage technology integration risk. We were early believers in the idea of Fabric8Labs' founders to combine galvanic processes, known for centuries, with state-of-the-art TFT backplane technology. We think that their process will have many applications in the future. We look forward to continuing to work with the team and the new investors to make this company a success."
