Azul 3DTM Takes Down $8 Million in Seed Funding

Azul 3DTM, a leading-edge 3D printing company, has completed its second stage of seed financing, totaling over $8 million. The most recent cash infusion exceeds $5.4 million and will be used to advance the company’s proprietary high area rapid printing (HARPTM) technology and to launch its first commercial printers. The Skokie, IL-based company will also be expanding its operations to prepare for product launch, recruiting senior leadership, and building its manufacturing facility.

Azul 3DTM is scheduled to ship its first printers to beta partners in the first quarter of 2021, with a full launch of production-ready printers at the end of 2021. Azul 3DTM’s customers will use the printers for manufacturing, as opposed to prototyping, producing several tons of polymer goods per year using HARPTM.

At present, Azul 3DTM is helping to combat the COVID-19 crisis by printing much-needed personal protective equipment (PPE). The company is producing medical face shields for healthcare workers at a record establishing rate of 1,000 per day per printer, in an effort to protect essential workers against COVID-19. Their next generation printer will come online in June, doubling this throughput capacity.

As a follow on to its manufacturing of PPE for COVID-19, Azul 3DTM has been asked by several state and foreign governments to investigate how they can utilize their unique high-throughput additive manufacturing technologies to lessen reliance on emergency stockpiles, transitioning to a ‘manufacture on-demand’ mentality. With shifting needs during moments of national crisis, such a capacity would be transformative for emergency response.

ABOUT AZUL 3DTM

Azul 3DTM is a leading-edge 3D printing company that is transforming the 3D printing industry. Initially invented and developed at Northwestern University, HARPTM allows one to print 3D structures from a wide pallet of materials in both the presence and absence of oxygen at a record pace. The initial printers based upon HARPTM are capable of manufacturing parts at production speeds, almost regardless of size, with a throughput dramatically outpacing its competitors and in certain cases competitive with injection molding. Azul 3DTM is enabling manufacturers to transition from prototype to mass-manufacturing on one streamlined platform. In combination with its proprietary industrial-grade materials, it offers the opportunity for higher throughput, limitless scale, and just-in-time mass production of diverse, highly customized products.