Carbon, a US-based 3D manufacturing technology developer backed by corporates Adidas, Alphabet, BMW, FIS, General Electric, Nikon, Johnson & Johnson and JSR Corporation, is raising $300m in series E funding, TechCrunch reported today.
The round is expected to value Carbon at up to $2.5bn. The company has not made any official statement about the plans, which were revealed through a securities filing first uncovered by analytics platform PitchBook.
Founded in 2013 as Carbon 3D, Carbon has created a 3D printing technology that relies on a light and oxygen-based process to construct items from liquid resins.
The company’s Digital Light Synthesis platform facilitates the mass customisation of products, for instance enabling apparel and footwear producer Adidas to create a line of personalised sneakers, or orthodontics lab New England Orthodontic Laboratory to producer orthodontics dental parts adapted to a patient’s individual needs.
Carbon has so far raised $422m in to date. It closed a $200m series D round in February 2018 according to a securities filing, after attracting commitments from investors including Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, the corporate venturing vehicle for medical group Johnson & Johnson.
The company had secured the first $143m by late 2017, from investors including Adidas subsidiary Hydra Ventures, industrial products and appliance group General Electric’s GE Ventures unit and materials producer JSR.
Fidelity Management & Research Company, Archina Capital, Baillie Gifford, Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake Kraftwerk, Reinet Investments and Emerson Collective’s Emerson Elemental unit also put their weight behind the series D round.
The company had completed a $181m series C round in 2016 after securing an $81m extension that was backed by GE Ventures, JSR, car manufacturer BMW and optical equipment supplier Nikon.
GV, an early-stage corporate venturing vehicle for internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet, had taken part in the round’s $100m first tranche alongside payment technology producer FIS and design software provider Autodesk in 2015.
The first series C close also featured Reinet Fund, Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake, Northgate Capital and private investor Yuri Milner. It followed a $10m commitment by Autodesk’s Spark Investment Fund earlier the same year.
