3D Evaluate: Assessing industrial 3D printing solutions, and more

Founded by Gil Lavi, a veteran of the additive manufacturing field, 3D Alliances is a successful consulting firm that focuses on helping startups in the 3D printing domain. After the COVID-19 crisis hit the world, the company realized that the additive manufacturing sector needs a solution to cope with the new obstacles in buyer-vendor communication, as the trade shows and other interactions are being cancelled or limited. Therefore, recently, 3D Alliances launched a new platform called 3D Evaluate, aiming to reduce the communication gap between buyers and sellers of industrial 3D printers. How exactly does it work? We were curious to learn more about 3D Evaluate, its applications and benefits. Thus, we decided to discuss the new solution with Gil Lavi, Founder and CEO.

1. Can you present yourself and tell us about your activity within the 3D printing sector?

I’m in the printing industry for over 25 years, worked for HP & Kodak from 1995-2005 in their digital 2D printing divisions. Joined Objet in 2006 as a direct sales manager in Israel. In 2008 I moved to Objet GmbH to help the company build and manage the European channel network. After the merger with Stratasys in 2012 I moved to manage the company’s strategic accounts in Europe. In 2015 I left the company after 10 great years. In 2016 I decided to contribute my experience with innovative 3D printing start-ups and founded 3D Alliances as a consulting company with a core activity of helping innovative start-ups with setting and managing their global channel networks. The companies I have worked with include BigRep, XJET, Essentium, Xact Metal & PostProcess. Along the way we added two additional services – access to funding and recruitment of sales talents. We are a group of 6 people in the team, 4 are ex-channel managers and 3D printing experts from Stratasys, 3D Systems, SLM, Materialize and Siemens.

Gil Lavi, Founder and CEO of 3D Alliances

2. Why did you decide to launch 3D Evaluate?

When the COVID-19 crisis emerged and public trade shows were cancelled across the world, we identified a big gap that was created between buyers of industrial 3D printers and sellers – the OEM’s/Vendors. Trade shows and conferences are the ideal place for both sides to meet for business: for the vendors it’s the ideal place to meet potential customers, and for the buyers such events are a great opportunity to meet with vendors face-to-face, see their printers in action and examine 3D printed parts. Since these events are not taking place these days, and this will be the case for the foreseeable future, we decided to fill this gap with offering the buyers and the vendors an online platform to meet and interact. Buyers of 3D printers could examine and compare different vendors in specific solution categories, and vendors could find and interact with potential buyers for their products.