Carbon raised $260 million: how will it invest its new capital?

Carbon, the world’s leading digital manufacturing platform announced last week that it had raised over $260 million in growth funding co-led by Madrone Capital Partners and Baillie Gifford. This investment paves the way for the global expansion of Carbon’s platform. Dr. Joseph DeSimone, Carbon’s CEO and Co-Founder commented, “With the Carbon Platform, powered by our Digital Light Synthesis technology, companies are finally breaking free of the constraints of traditional polymer manufacturing methods to make what’s next now, and at speeds and volumes never before possible.”

Carbon’s mission has always been to reinvent how polymer products are designed, engineered, manufactured, and delivered towards a digital and sustainable future. Unlike the usual layer-by-layer approach at 3D printing, Carbon uses Digital Light Synthesis, which resembles much more injection molding technology. It uses digital light projection, oxygen permeable optics, and programmable liquid resins to produce parts with excellent mechanical properties, resolution and surface finish.

Example of the difference between Carbon’s technology (right) and traditional polymer 3D printing (left) | Credits: Carbon

Founded in 2013, the company has expanded to over 400 employees. Now operational in 14 countries, the Carbon Platform has seen a 33X increase in print volumes over the past 12 months and more than 5X increase in print hours. Additionally, the company has also released 17 new third-party resins and three new first-party resins over the past year.