2013 is the year that digital technology got physical. Part of this is the explosion of the application of physics to the internet and part of it is the the application of bits to atoms to make them smarter. Today, another piece of the puzzle drops into place with announcement that Andreessen Horowitz has led a $30 million round of financing for Shapeways, the 3D printing company that enables anyone to manufacture high-quality products with no upfront costs or minimum run.
In a related announcement, Chris Dixon former CEO and co-founder (with Caterina Fake) of Hunch, is joining Shapeway's executive board. Shapeways reports that their existing investors, Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures, and Lux Capital have also participated in the new funding.
Shapeways has been around since 2007 and has already raised $17 million according to CrunchBase, so Andreessen Horowitz is blowing air into an already expanding balloon. As you can see from the infographic below, Shapeways has already printed more than a million products in more than 30 different materials and has a community of more than 300,000 makers.
What makes Shapeways different from MakerBot and other 3D printing innovators is their model, and it's highly scalable. Instead of selling DIY printers directly to makers, like MakerBot, Shapeways has invested in manufacturing facilities, one right in New York City, others in Eindhoven and Seattle, that produce batches of products simultaneously in large, industrial-sized printers, each dedicated to a different material. They currently list 9 materials and 7 different printing methods. And the objects can be quite large, especially compared to "desktop" 3D printers, up to 26" on the longest side in nylon and 40" in stainless steel.
The example in the video below shows objects printed using their "White, Strong & Flexible" nylon material. Thin (.1mm) layers of nylon powder are sintered in precise shapes by a laser beam, and each layer takes 30 seconds to print. The objects are then removed from the unsintered nylon powder brushed off and then finely cleaned. All of the unused material is recovered and reused. Orders are generally filled and shipped within 2-3 weeks.
Not only can community members have their 3D products printed by Shapeways, but they can also set up their own shops and sell through Shapeways' marketplace. Jewelry, lamps and iPhone accessories are popular items. The company hosts more than 10,000 shops, but last year the total income from those shops was just $500,000, so nobody is quitting their day jobs just yet.
What is exciting about Shapeways is that it makes manufacturing affordable and accessible to almost anyone who knows how to use a 3D design program. That, in itself, is a big "if," but as these tools proliferate and become easier to uses and as manufacturing from 3D models becomes more ubiquitous, the two trends will reinforce one another. Someday, designing a personalized product and sending it off to be printed will be like sharing a photo on Instagram. Think of how many technical functions have been streamlined (and consequently mainstreamed) by apps like Instagram and you have some sense of how these hurdles could be leaped with 3D printing.
A collaboration (see video below) between Shapeways and Soundcloud (a natural pairing) makes iPhone cases based on sound waves. As Soundcloud is on its way to becoming the YouTube of audio, it is easy to see how making 3D products could become another digital craft that young people master as a matter of course.
What 3D printing is waiting for to really take off is a viral hit. Some product that is both customizable and supremely useful, collectible or cool looking that only makes economic sense to produce this way. Andreessen Horowitz wants to position Shapeways to be ready for that eventuality and have the capacity to crank out those millions of customized widgets in facilities all over the world to meet the demand.
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