Techstars counts 1,200 startups as alumni. Nowadays, the partnership with Stanley Black & Decker it’s backing its first class of additive manufacturing entrepreneurs. (Photo credits: RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
TechStars has long been known for its seed funding of tech startups. Its accelerator counts 1,200 startups among its alumni, including PillPack, the online pharmacy recently acquired by Amazon, and cloud computing company Digital Ocean. Now, in partnership with tools giant Stanley Black & Decker, it launched its first additive manufacturing accelerator to fund new ideas in Additive Manufacturing, rapid prototyping, and generative design.
Today, the Stanley+Techstars Additive Manufacturing Accelerator, which will be co-located with Stanley Black & Decker’s advanced manufacturing center in Hartford, Connecticut, announced the 10 companies selected for that first class, and they show the breadth of innovation going on in the industry. There are startups from Ireland, Israel and Canada, as well as from the United States, in areas that include Metal Additive Manufacturing, ceramics and soft materials; Additive Manufacturing software, and technology that would use nanomaterials to make plastics electrically conductive. (Learn more about Additive Manufacturing Materials for Industry). TechStars would not disclose how many applications it had received for the new accelerator, noting only that they came from 11 countries. Each of the chosen startups will receive $20,000 in funding in exchange for 6% of the company’s common stock and will be offered a $100,000 convertible note.
Claudia Reuter heads the new Stanley+Techstars accelerator for additive manufacturing startups. (Photo credit: Jane Shauck) Courtesy of TechStars.
“Advances in materials and hardware allow for innovation and disruption in manufacturing. We were looking across the spectrum of what startups out there were doing.”
-Claudia Reuter, managing director of the new additive manufacturing accelerator at Claudia Reuter, at Techstars
The highlights of the new class include Micron3DP,an Israeli startup that created the world’s first glass 3-D printer and is now working on faster metal 3-D printers; Kwambio, a ceramics 3-D printing startup that is the only member of the class to have previously gone through another Techstars program; NanoQuan, a spinoff of the University of Waterloo that’s working to make plastics electrically conductive; Structur3D Printing, which created a device that allows the 3-D printing of soft materials, such as biomaterials and elastomers; and Mani.me, a Palo Alto, California-based startup using 3-D printing to create tailor-fit, customizable, ready-to-wear designer manicures that it will sell by subscription.
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Source: Forbes Online https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2018/07/16/seed-funding-3d-printing-startups-peak-first-techstars-stanley-additive-manufacturing-class-accelerator-entrepreneurs/#573824477b8a, visited on Jul 16, 2018;
