3D Printing Rings The Public Trading Bell

By on July 16th, 2021 in Corporate, news

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3D Printing Rings The Public Trading Bell
This fully 3D printed bell rang in the inaugural day of trading for MKFG [Source: Markforged via YouTube]

Xometry and Markforged have both officially gone public, and FATHOM has announced its intent to join them, upping additive manufacturing on the stock market.

Xometry IPO

Xometry announced its IPO intentions just last month. A few weeks later, the company updated its IPO pricing as they moved closer to their forthcoming Nasdaq listing.

As of the end of June, Xometry is officially trading on Nasdaq under the ticker XMTR. The company announced:

“Xometry, Inc. (‘Xometry’), a leading AI-enabled marketplace for on-demand manufacturing, today announced the closing of its initial public offering of 7,906,250 shares of its Class A common stock, which includes the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to an additional 1,031,250 shares of Class A common stock, at a price of $44.00 per share. Xometry’s Class A common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol ‘XMTR.’”

As of the end of last week, Xometry is the second largest player on our running tally of the 3D printing companies with the highest valuations. Since it first appeared on our list the week before, Xometry has been placing quite nicely, with a market cap smaller than first place 3D Systems — and above big name Desktop Metal and fellow manufacturing service company Protolabs, its most closely related public competitor.

“Around 30% of the Fortune 500 are Xometry customers. And in any given quarter, we’ve seen 93% to 96% of our revenue be generated by returning accounts. So certainly big companies and returning accounts generate a lot of revenue for Xometry. But we have this very open marketplace. So we’re democratizing access to manufacturing. So while we have giant companies as customers, we also have startups and a lot of emerging technologies,” Xometry CEO Randy Altschuler told Yahoo Finance Live upon the IPO closing.

“So things that are important for the future economy like space travel, and EV companies, and other companies focus on sustainability, they also have access to Xometry, and effectively an instant supply chain.”

The model for digital manufacturing is proving to be a recipe for success — and one that’s certainly caught the eye of those interested in Nasdaq listings.

Markforged SPAC

Newer to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is MKFG.

In February, Boston-based Markforged announced its intention to go public via special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger with a company called one. The ultimate strategy at Markforged, as the company told us, is to “reinvent manufacturing.” That’s a lofty aspiration — and one shared throughout much of the additive manufacturing industry. For Markforged, it’s somewhat personal; the company offers high-strength reinforced polymer and metal 3D printing powered by their versatile and impressive Digital Forge platform uniting software, hardware, and materials.

“Today is a proud moment for the entire Markforged team and a significant milestone in our mission to reinvent manufacturing today so our customers can build anything they imagine tomorrow,” said Markforged President and CEO Shai Terem upon the official NYSE trading announcement. “As a publicly traded company, we will continue to focus on executing on our ambitious product roadmap and further accelerating innovation, expanding customer adoption, and capitalizing on the strong secular trends in additive manufacturing, allowing us to bring our platform to even more manufacturing floors around the world for mission-critical use cases. Looking ahead, we have some exciting products in our pipeline as we move from accessible end-use parts to robust production.”

In May, for the first time Markforged released their financial results. We can now come to expect this as a regular occurrence as a publicly traded company.

To ring in their new status as MKFG, the Markforged team decided to go big, 3D printing their own NYSE bell to ring in the moment. The 3D printed bell will now remain at the NYSE. The team captured the magic of creating their own bell:

FATHOM SPAC

Also just announced today — after initially writing this article, but just ahead of its publication, as things happen in real time — another SPAC deal has been announced. Another digital manufacturing player is set to join the public arena as FATHOM announces its intent to join the NYSE under “FDMG” in Q4 2021 via SPAC with Altimar Acquisition Corp. II.

FATHOM has been changing its business model drastically over the last few years. The company was acquired by CORE Industrial Partners, merging with fellow CORE acquisition Midwest Composite Technologies (MCT) in 2019, forming a digital manufacturing powerhouse. The next year, the FATHOM umbrella expanded with another acquisition. The manufacturing services consolidation has been an intriguing one to follow.

Going public will also afford the FATHOM operations to continue to grow with more acquisitions. Today’s announcement indicates:

“Additionally, as a result of Fathom’s advantages, scale, and track record of successful acquisitions, it is well-positioned as an acquirer of choice for other firms in the sector looking to become part of a larger platform. The Company currently has a robust pipeline of potential acquisitions and will be better able to execute on this large inorganic pipeline once it is able to utilize its stock as acquisition currency.”

The announcement further details:

“The transaction is valued at a pro forma enterprise value of $1.5 billion. The acquisition will be funded through a combination of ATMR’s cash in trust and an $80 million fully committed common stock PIPE at $10.00 per share.

The boards of directors of both Fathom and ATMR have unanimously approved the proposed transaction and it is expected to close later this year, subject to customary closing conditions, including being declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission and approval of ATMR’s shareholders.”

3D Printing Ringing Trading Bells

XMTR and MKFG ringing the bells at Nasdaq and the NYSE, and FDMG gearing up to do so, highlights something major happening right now across the additive manufacturing industry.

A slew of SPACs (and the somewhat-lonely Xometry IPO) are bringing a new cohort of companies to the public market. There are many ways to describe these corporations: 3D printing, additive manufacturing, digital manufacturing, decentralized production. But what they do all have in common, however they decide to phrase it, is their dedication to bringing next-generation manufacturing technologies and connectivity to the world.

That is: it isn’t just Xometry and FATHOM that want to ease connection to advanced manufacturing, or Markforged looking to overhaul manufacturing as we’ve known it.

Additive manufacturing is here. Can’t you hear the bells tolling the news?

Via Xometry, Markforged, and FATHOM

By Sarah Goehrke

Sarah Goehrke is a Special Correspondent for Fabbaloo, via a partnership with Additive Integrity LLC. Focused on the 3D printing industry since 2014, she strives to bring grounded and on-the-ground insights to the 3D printing industry. Sarah served as Fabbaloo's Managing Editor from 2018-2021 and remains active in the industry through Women in 3D Printing and other work.

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