Shapeways, a pioneering force in digital manufacturing, is returning to the global market under a new management team (although most top management consists of people who were associated with Shapeways for a long time), a sustainable business model and a renewed customer-centric approach.
Originally launched in 2008, Shapeways underwent significant structural and business model changes under the previous leadership, ultimately leading to bankruptcy in July 2024. But, the management team of the profitable Eindhoven factory has joined forces with two of the original Shapeways founders — both of whom have been out of the business for over a decade — to reset the company’s trajectory.
New management Team to run Shapeways
The new management team has completed the purchase of all available assets from both the Dutch and American trustees handling the bankruptcy of Shapeways Inc., and Shapeways BV, and now owns the Shapeways name, website and original Eindhoven production facility. Shapeways will leverage its software, hardware, design and engineering capabilities to be a digital manufacturing engine for its customers.
Leveraging history for progress
The new Shapeways management team are:
- Marleen Vogelaar – CEO: Co-founded Shapeways in 2007 and left in 2014, former COO/CFO
- Jules Witte – COO: Joined Shapeways in 2012 and remains with the company, former Plant Manager
- Robert Schouwenburg – CTO: Co-founded Shapeways in 2007 and left in 2012, former CTO
- Job van de Laar – Plant Manager: Joined Shapeways in 2019 and remains with the company
- Tiago São José – Head of Engineering: Joined Shapeways in 2012 and remains with the company
“When I helped to launch Shapeways in 2008 it was at the forefront of democratizing access to digital manufacturing. The new management team believes there is a ‘next chapter’ to be written in the Shapeways story, one that includes learning from the past and building a pragmatic, financially sustainable and operationally stable company that continues to provide exceptional service to our users.”
– Marleen Vogelaar, CEO, Shapeways
Shapeways currently operates from its original home town, Eindhoven, The Netherlands with an international team and will continue to deploy and expand its resources and footprint to be a digital manufacturing engine for its global customer base.
New COO Jules Witte commented, “Our belief in Shapeways has driven us to continue this journey. The acquisition of the Shapeways brand marks a significant milestone on that journey, but doesn’t signal the end. In fact we are excited by the opportunities that lie ahead for Shapeways, our customers and their customers. We have a long way to go, but retain our core ability to produce high-quality parts to meet the needs of our varied customer base.”
New Approach
- New management team made up of Eindhoven-based Shapeways BV team and two original Shapeways co-founders
- Shapeways will continue to offer a wide range of 3D printing technologies and a large suite of materials and post-processing options, with standard and custom quality control options
- While the marketplace and shops are not able to be restarted because of data lost during the bankruptcy and unusable infrastructure, solutions for the community are actively being sought
- User IP (e.g., model data) was owned by the users, not the defunct entity. The new management team bought all the available intellectual property owned by the defunct entity, but did not buy or get access to user-owned IP as the trustee could not sell that to any new owner
- All Manuevo accounts and model data will be present through www.shapeways.com going forward.
More information can be found in the FAQ document here.
About Shapeways: Shapeways is the world’s leading platform offering programmatic solutions for diverse manufacturing industries. By deploying regional and agile digital manufacturing technologies Shapeways enables its customers to bring small to medium volume production-grade parts & products to market quickly, and manage them effectively throughout their full lifecycle.
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