Freeform has secured a Series B round of $67 million to continue its goal of changing metal manufacturing through AI-driven 3D printing. Notable investors from this round include Apandion, AE Ventures, Founders Fund, Linse Capital, Nvidia’s NVentures, Threshold Ventures, and Two Sigma Ventures.
Freeform’s focus is on building systems that integrate advanced metal additive manufacturing from multiple sources to produce intricate parts at a volume level. The company utilizes a unique combination of multiple lasers, real-time simulations, and AI-driven controls to streamline speed, quality, and consistency during the metal production process.
Freeform’s founder, Erik Palitsch, is a former engineer of SpaceX and built the company in 2018. While at SpaceX, Palitsch experienced the challenges of the industrial metal printers available at the time during the construction of rocket engines. Freeform was designed to prioritize scalability and software-driven manufacturing. Rather than merely selling machines,
Freeform adopts a manufacturing-as-a-service model. Since its inception, the company claims to have shipped several hundred mission-critical components on a weekly basis to its clients in the aerospace, defense, robotics, and energy industries.
Scaling AI-Native Manufacturing
The new funding will first be used to improve Freeform’s currently existing manufacturing platform, GoldenEye, and also to build its next-gen manufacturing platform, Skyfall. GoldenEye utilizes 18 lasers to fuse metal powder into precise parts, while Skyfall aims to utilize hundreds of lasers. The company states that Skyfall will dramatically increase the output by providing the ability to produce thousands of kilograms of metal parts daily. This would also increase the throughput to unprecedented levels.
This investment represents Freeform’s commitment towards advancing the digital-to-physical manufacturing continuum. Freeform aims to solve the gap for faster manufacturing by incorporating high precision and reliability AI-driven workflow into the manufacturing process.
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Investor’s Confidence and Strategic Growth
The role of Nvidia’s venture arm illustrates the increasing convergence of AI and advanced manufacturing. Using powerful GPUs, Freeform executes real-time manufacturing process simulations and control. Their “AI-native” strategy allows Freeform to optimize manufacturing results and learn from the associated production data on an ongoing basis.
Freeform’s leaders view this strategy as a competitive advantage over legacy industrial manufacturing enterprises that are process static and have low levels of automation and process control. In contrast, Freeform’s system is dynamic: it captures sensor data and utilizes physics-based simulations to improve process control and operational efficiency.
Analysts predict that, as the need for rapid, iterative, and custom production increases, demand for AI manufacturing technologies will also increase. Freeform’s ability to integrate hardware, software, and AI technology will add to its competitive advantage as these technologies merge.
The significant investment needed to expand advanced manufacturing systems presents considerable challenges; Freeform will need to demonstrate the industrial quality, reliability, and cost efficiency that will enable it to compete with legacy players in the manufacturing space.
Freeform’s newest funding round, with strong investor backing and aspirations, captures the growing confidence in AI manufacturing as critical to the future of the industrial economy.
