BASF, Materialise, Essentium Join to Advance Industrial Additive Manufacturing

BASF Venture Capital is leading the Series A investment round in Essentium, Inc., a developer of disruptive, industrial additive manufacturing solutions headquartered in College Station, Texas.
Materialise is one of the co-investors in the Series A investment round in Essentium, Inc.

BASF and Essentium have been working together on advanced fused filament fabrication solutions using Essentium’s proprietary FlashFuse technology for high mechanical strength in the build direction for extrusion printed parts.

The two companies are now extending their partnership to establish a consistent global materials supply chain supportive of Essentium’s new High Speed Extrusion additive manufacturing platform. Essentium and BASF welcome Materialise to enter this strategic partnership to develop 3D printing software for the Essentium technology.

This will allow users to take advantage of the speed of the HSE technology while having immediate access to the full Materialise software capabilities for professional 3D printing. The three companies combine their complementary strengths to jointly advance 3D printing technology and customer value to enable industrial additive manufacturing.

BASF is contributing comprehensive material know-how, a broad product portfolio, and its global network to the partnership. Materialise adds nearly three decades of expertise in the development of innovative 3D printing software solutions. Essentium is addressing additive manufacturing at scale by developing an industrial additive platform truly built for the production floor, providing its FlashFuse electric welding technology, and engineering-grade, multi-layer filaments for demanding applications. Together, the three partners intend to innovate solutions with an advanced combination of hardware, software and materials to unleash the potential of Essentium’s unique high-speed-printer technology, coordinating their strengths to the best advantage.

“Our joint investment strengthens our co-operation with both Essentium and Materialise and accelerates the innovation potential of this powerful team to the benefit of BASF’s customers,” said Markus Solibieda, managing director of BASF Venture Capital.

“Essentium and BASF are focusing on improved supply chain performance, material consistency and accessibility. Essentium is also delighted to begin a new partnership with Materialise as the three companies focus efforts toward a new era for smart solutions in the global additive extrusion space,” said Dr. Blake Teipel, CEO of Essentium, Inc. “Together, we believe manufacturers everywhere will be able to accelerate production due to increased access to our new solutions, bolstered by a holistic, customer-centric approach.”

“Materialise, Essentium and BASF share a vision for growth in the 3D printing industry that builds on the creation of meaningful applications in an open and vibrant ecosystem,” added Bart Van der Schueren, CTO of Materialise. “This partnership helps to promote a more open market model, which will fuel the adoption of 3D printing in the industrial field by offering users more control, more choice in materials and ultimately lower cost and higher volumes.”

BASF and Materialise are joined by a syndicate of private venture investors. Moving forward, BASF, Materialise, and Essentium will jointly drive the transition from 3D printing to scalable additive manufacturing.