There’s been much written about the sorry state of investment in the 3D print industry lately.
That’s not surprising given the staggeringly awful outcomes that played out over the past few years. Let’s look at one example, Desktop Metal.
The company started as a promising startup, offering an inexpensive path to metal 3D printing, competing against massively expensive LBPF technologies. They enabled a vision of huge numbers of manufacturers using their tech, who would otherwise be financially locked out of using the more expensive traditional tech.
It was a good story, and many investors agreed. The company took on massive amounts of VC investment. How much? In total, it was over US$800M, collected in a number of investment rounds. The company eventually went public on the market, rising in value at one point over US$5B. They leveraged their valuation to acquire multiple other 3D print companies to create a portfolio of tech options for customers.
Then it all collapsed. Their technology was not quite as capable as advertised, and they quickly had a number of capable competitors with similar offerings. Their valuation plummeted, and ultimately they were acquired by Nano Dimension in a forced sale.
In the end the massive amount of investment was utterly lost, spoiling the appetite for 3D print technology among most major investors. Even worse, Desktop Metal was not the only instance of this scenario: it happened with several others, adding to the negative perception.
This is quite unfortunate because it meant that the availability of cash to legitimately profitable and growing 3D print companies was effectively shut off. For the past few years we’ve seen many companies slow down or even give up because they can’t find investment to continue. Perhaps this is a good thing, as unprofitable companies need to change or get out of the way.
This has been the situation for the past couple of years: financial constraints.
However, in the past couple of weeks we’ve seen some glimmers of a slightly brighter future.
One instance was the announcement that Caracol, the large format robotic 3D printer manufacturer, had obtained a massive US$40M investment. This investment involved several notable VCs, and we’re told that the round was oversubscribed — meaning some early investors were able to cash out by selling their stakes.
This is quite interesting because it is the opposite of the recent downturn in investment.
Another instance is Xact Metal, which announced continued growth. They report 30% growth rate in both quarters of 2025, something we’ve heard from them in the past. The growth has been so significant that they’ve had to increase their sales team.
Both of these instances demonstrate that the 3D print industry isn’t full of ventures about to fail. It’s a mix of company types, and it’s up to investors to properly judge which ones truly deserve major investments.
What we need now is a new wave of intelligent investors that are willing to properly investigate 3D print companies and provide investment that allows the technology to grow.
There are winners out there.
