In a regulatory filing Shapeways, the marketplace for 3D printing, revealed the company has raised $30M in a new round of venture funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures and Lux Capital. The round was lead by a16z and Chris Dixon has joined the Shapeways board of directors.
The company enables anyone to design and produce one-of-a-kind bespoke products using 3D printing.
Turns out this was already covered by TechCrunch back in April — oh well! — Shapeways is such a cool company why not write it up again? I personally can’t wait to see what comes next from the New York based company who, according to LinkedIn, now have 70-80 employees. In fact, I’m buying this incredible iPhone 5 “Sweater” case right now.
I still remember the first time I saw one of the products made by them a few years back at SXSW when they were just getting started, and I thought it was a cool thing for hobbyists but didn’t completely understand how it would get big. Turns out things that hobbyists love (ahem Twilio, computers, etc.) can be embraced by a much larger audience, and it looks like Shapeways has figured out how to crack the code and now boasts a marketplace of more than 10,000 stores on their site.
Cool Things Made with Shapeways
Image Credit: Fragatory
Image Credit: Adafruit
Image Credit: http://www.markflorquin.be
Image Credit: retrocactus on Flickr
Image Credit: Shapeways