Two 3D printer manufacturers are going public for trading on two stock exchanges.
Velo3D
One of the two companies has already been on a major exchange: Velo3D. The company went public initially on the NASDAQ back in 2021. At the time, they used the “SPAC” approach, where they arranged to be purchased by a holding company that was already on the exchange. That simplified the process of getting on the exchange, a common approach at that time.
However, it didn’t work out for investors, as the company’s valuation consistently dropped, and finally, last September, they could not maintain the minimum price threshold and were moved off the exchange. Since then, the company has been traded on the over-the-counter market.
Now, there’s a new investment of US$17.5M, and they will now trade on the NASDAQ once again. However, they will trade under the symbol “VELO”, as opposed to their previous symbol “VLDX”.
Creality
The other company now set to be publicly traded is none other than Creality, one of the largest players in 3D printing. The Shenzhen-based company ships massive quantities of desktop 3D printers to millions of customers around the world. They now have more than 2,000 distributors in almost all countries.
Now, there’s been an official filing with the Hong Kong Exchange for the company to begin trading. Note that this is an application, and it is undergoing review by HKEX officials. Typically, this will take months, and it is possible we won’t be able to buy or sell Creality stock until 2026.
The application provides quite a bit of previously unknown data about Creality, specifically their financials. It turns out that the company’s revenue in 2024 was near US$600M, with a profit margin of between 10-15%. That’s quite significant, and this makes Creality one of the more profitable companies in 3D printing that is publicly known. Many of the larger 3D printer manufacturers in the West have been losing money for years.
Another interesting observation from the data is that Creality’s revenue is almost balanced between Chinese and non-Chinese markets, with the non-Chinese being very slightly larger.
With Creality going public, the attention now shifts to their Chinese competitors, Anycubic, Elegoo, and especially Bambu Lab. Will any of them also consider moving to an exchange?
Both of these companies will eventually be added to our weekly valuation leaderboard.
