Fabric8Labs, the pioneer of electrochemical additive manufacturing, announced the completion of a $50 million Series B investment round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from existing investors such as Intel Capital, imec.XPAND, SE Ventures, TDK Ventures, and Lam Capital.
The new funds will be used to scale the company’s proprietary Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM) technology and set up a pilot production facility.
“We are thrilled to have NEA’s support in executing our vision. It is critical to have partners that are aligned with our mission to fundamentally shift manufacturing with a sustainable, additive manufacturing approach; and we have been fortunate to surround ourselves with a team of top tier investors.”
– Jeff Herman, CEO and Co-founder, Fabric8Labs
Fabric8Labs’ Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing Technology
Metal Additive Manufacturing (metal AM), also known as metal 3D printing, has experienced rapid growth over the last decade, with an average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27%. However, due to the constraints of powder-based feedstocks and thermal processes, which drive high costs, insufficient repeatability, and feature resolution limitations, metal AM adoption for high-volume manufacturing has been limited.
Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM), on the other hand, is built at the atomic level from a water-based feedstock containing dissolved metal ions. Micron-scale feature resolution, complex internal features, high-purity materials, and rapid scalability to support mass manufacturing are all possible with the electrochemical approach.
ECAM is uniquely suited to manufacturing ultra-high resolution, pure copper components that can be directly printed onto temperature sensitive substrates such as PCBs, silicon, or existing metal components. This capability comes at a time when electronics companies are looking for enabling technologies to address thermal management, power density, device form factor, and sustainability challenges.
ECAM enables the production of optimized designs that meet and exceed the increasingly stringent performance requirements in end-applications such as high-performance computing (HPC), data centers, electric vehicles, wearables, RF communications, and a variety of consumer electronics products.
“The potential of Fabric8Labs’ novel technology is undeniable and we believe ECAM is suited to support a wide range of applications across the electronics value chain. As the team works to scale their offerings, they’ll be able to deliver value across multiple business units for their customers, furthering their value-add.”
– Jennifer Ard, Managing Director at Intel Capital
Fabric8Labs is developing medical device applications and micro-mechanical components in addition to enabling advancements in electronics. These applications take advantage of ECAM’s inherent benefits to create extremely fine, complex features and high-performance alloys. As the company grows, ECAM will enable ultra-high resolution applications such as advanced surgical tools, sensors, diagnostic equipment, and MEMs.
“ECAM stands out as truly differentiated among the sea of approaches to additive manufacturing. You can avoid expensive post-processing, easily build complex things at micron-scale, print directly on your existing substrates, and do all of this at scale with, by far, the lowest energy — and thus carbon — footprint. We’re thrilled to partner with Jeff and the Fabric8Labs team on this revolution for additive manufacturing.”
– Greg Papadopoulos, PhD., Venture Partner at NEA
ECAM is environmentally sustainable and supports green initiatives in addition to providing manufacturing capabilities that advance customers’ technology roadmaps. ECAM reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90% when compared to alternative additive technologies and traditional manufacturing. Customers’ adoption of ECAM across a wide range of market opportunities has been accelerated by the winning combination of capability, cost performance, and sustainability.
About Fabric8Labs: Fabric8Labs, Inc., based in San Diego, California, is revolutionising manufacturing with its advanced 3D printing technology – Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM). Founded in 2015, the company’s proprietary ECAM technology is a key enabler across multiple value chains, such as electronics, medical devices, communications systems, and semiconductor manufacturing. Fabric8Labs is working to broaden the market for metal additive manufacturing by providing advanced manufacturing services that displace traditional manufacturing.
About NEA: New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With nearly $24 billion in cumulative committed capital since the firm’s founding in 1977, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm’s track record of investing includes more than 270 portfolio company IPOs and more than 440 mergers and acquisitions.
