Mantle Inc., which has developed the most precise and efficient metal 3D printing technology on the market, announced that it has secured a Series B funding of $25 million, bringing the total amount raised by the company to $41.5 million. Mantle TrueShape Technology prints, shapes, and sinters precision metal parts from a CAD file in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional manufacturing with a focus on 3D printed tooling.
The financing round was led by Fine Structure Ventures, a venture capital fund affiliated with FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments. Existing investors, including Foundation Capital, Hypertherm Ventures, Future Shape, 11.2 Capital, and Corazon Capital, joined the financing.
“Fine Structure Ventures sees that a digital transformation is happening in the manufacturing industry. Mantle is helping manufacturers redefine how they bring products to market by reducing lead times and costs while implementing more digital, flexible, and local supply chains. We are impressed by the value that Mantle’s early customers have realised and look forward to supporting Mantle’s expected growth.”
– Shyam Kamadolli, Managing Director at Fine Structure Ventures
Mantle TrueShape Technology
Unlike other 3D printing technologies that struggle to produce high-volume end-use parts directly, Mantle TrueShape Technology is focused on 3D printed tooling used to make these end-use parts. These tools traditionally have been time-consuming and expensive to make and are a bottleneck in manufacturers’ product launch schedules. Mantle’s unique combination of accuracy, surface finish, and multiple tool steel materials allows manufacturers to meet their stringent tooling needs while reducing lead times and costs by over 65%, thereby shaving months off lengthy, costly hardware development cycles.
Mantle also announced today that its manufacturing customers continue to find success as over one million end-use parts – ranging from deodorant packaging to medical devices to dishwasher components – have now been produced with tool components made from Mantle’s technology.
“Most of the products we use every day are manufactured using the types of tools that Mantle prints. Our investors and customers are excited about the evolutionary and revolutionary nature of Mantle’s unique approach. Mantle allows companies to evolve with the manufacturing processes, materials, and supply chains they know and trust while realizing a revolutionary improvement in tooling lead time and cost.”
– Ted Sorom, Mantle CEO and Co-Founder
Mantle Customer Success Stories
Tessy Plastics, a global contract manufacturer specialising in injection moulding and custom automated assembly solutions, has demonstrated the successful use of Mantle’s 3D printed tooling components in a production tool for a high-volume consumer product. Over 400,000 cycles have run in the tool, which uses multiple 3D printed inserts. All moulded parts have met Tessy’s rigorous quality standards for dimensional accuracy and surface finish.
A multinational medical device manufacturer successfully reduced the lead time for a prototype tool from 12 weeks to 4 weeks and reduced the cost over 65% by using Mantle’s 3D printed tooling components. The printed mould components met the manufacturer’s strict accuracy and surface finish requirements. All moulded parts met the requirements for dimensional accuracy and mechanical properties.
“Mantle has demonstrated tremendous progress in addressing the $45 billion tooling market. They are consistently proving that they can help manufacturers reduce time and cost from their tooling programs. We believe that our further investment in the company will help bring Mantle’s precision metal 3D printing technology to a market that has desperately needed this innovation.”
– Steve Vassallo, General Partner at Foundation Capital
Mantle will use the new financing to increase its hardware, software, materials science, and manufacturing teams to accelerate the development and installation of its first commercial systems in early 2022.
The tooling market is just the beginning for Mantle. Mantle’s TrueShape technology can address a wide range of applications in the $350 billion precision parts market in the future, including jigs and fixtures, low volume industrial machinery and spare parts, and high volume part production.
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