By Bruce Geiselman
3D printer manufacturers MakerBot and Ultimaker announced a merger they said will accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing and bring an infusion of $62.4 million in funding to the combined company.
The companies’ current leaders will act as co-CEOs of the new company; MakerBot CEO Nadav Goshen will manage operations and R&D, while Ultimaker CEO Jürgen von Hollen will handle commercial functions. It will retain dual headquarters in the Netherlands and Brooklyn, N.Y. The deal is expected to close in the next few weeks.
The name of the new venture has not yet been announced.
The combined company will sell the software and hardware portfolios currently offered by the separate companies and expand by developing new products.
Existing investors NPM Capital and Stratasys will back the new entity with additional funding. NPM, an investor in Ultimaker, will invest $15.4 million into the new combined company and own 54.4 percent of the new venture. Stratasys, which owns MakerBot, will invest $47 million and own 45.6 percent of the combined company.
Combining the companies will allow Ultimaker and MakerBot to expand product offerings and better compete in a global market, according to the CEOs.
“Together, we can really get to the next milestone of driving the industry forward by providing a professional-grade, easy-to-use 3D printer, and I think that’s part of the aim for the investment – fueling that innovation,” Goshen said during an online press conference.
MakerBot and Ultimaker will enhance each other once the merger is complete, von Hollen said.
“We are very complementary in many, many aspects of the business,” von Hollen said. “From a sales perspective … Ultimaker is 100 percent channel [indirect sales], and if you look at the MakerBot side, they actually are going direct [to consumer]. They’re more diverse – they have some channel – but also direct.”
MakerBot’s e-commerce capabilities could help expand the market for what is now Ultimaker’s portfolio.
In addition, Ultimaker has a strong presence in the European market, while MakerBot has a strong presence in the United States, von Hollen said.
Goshen agreed the two companies’ operations are highly complementary.
“We see that we have a shared vision, and it is really to make desktop printing more accessible but also at the professional grade,” Goshen said. “Together, I think we can achieve that by combining our teams together. This is all about growth. We’re going to grow the markets to bring more product to the market … MakerBot has a lot of know-how that was driven by Stratasys’ high-end processes.”
Ultimaker, meanwhile, has innovative software tools, Goshen said.
By combining the companies, the new venture will have the scale and funding to develop new engineering-grade, easy-to-use and affordable printers, Goshen said.
The merged company will put a focus on printers designed for light industrial use, von Hollen said.
“It’s in that lighter industrial space where we actually see opportunities, which today are not being met,” he said.
Printers for light industrial use produce lower volumes of parts but could include some end-use parts, he said. The goal is to develop a strong, robust, repeatable printer in the $10,000 to $20,000 price range. Looking into that market segment today, the price point is around $40,000, he said.
“We actually think that there is an opportunity for us to enter into that segment to get more of that market,” von Hollen said.
The companies need to consult with employee representative bodies and gather regulatory approvals before the deal can be finalized.
Bruce Geiselman, senior staff reporter
Contact information:
MakerBot Industries LLC, Brooklyn, N.Y., 347-334-6800, www.makerbot.com
Ultimaker B.V., Utrecht, Netherlands, 31 0 88 383 4000, www.ultimaker.com/
Bruce Geiselman | Senior Staff Reporter
Senior Staff Reporter Bruce Geiselman covers extrusion, blow molding, additive manufacturing, automation and end markets including automotive and packaging. He also writes features, including In Other Words and Problem Solved, for Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing, Plastics Recycling and The Journal of Blow Molding. He has extensive experience in daily and magazine journalism.
