Markforged acquires Digital Metal for $40M as 3D printing space continues to evolve – TechCrunch

Metal and carbon fiber company Markforged (best known for its Digital Forge platform) announced today that it acquired Digital Metal to further increase its lineup of machines that can produce metal parts. The company was previously owned by Swedish metal powder manufacturer Höganäs AB.

The acquisition highlights Markforged’s push into additive manufacturing for industrial customers, and with Digital Metal’s powder-binding jetting machine lineup, the company unlocks large-scale, high-volume metal part production capabilities.

“With the Digital Metal acquisition, Markforged is advancing our vision for distributed manufacturing by enabling the reliable, high-volume production of precise metal parts at the point of need. Infusing Digital Metal’s solution into The Digital Forge platform allows us to address new applications in the medical, automotive, luxury goods and other industries,” said Shai Terem, president and CEO of Markforged. “The Digital Metal team has created a robust and scalable solution that complements our existing technologies. I look forward to welcoming their talented people to Markforged.”

Digital Metal was originally founded in 2003, and the company has built a name for itself for metal parts that are used in consumer products, automotive use and for experimental and prototyping use. The company shares that its printers have been used to produce hundreds of thousands of parts

“Markforged’s easy-to-use platform, best-in-class software capabilities and material expertise felt like a natural fit for the future of our technology,” said Christian Lönne, CEO of Digital Metal. “With Markforged’s experience and go-to-market scale, we are confident that we will be able to grow our technology together and help more manufacturers produce the high-volume metal parts they need to drive highly productive and cost-efficient operations.”

As part of the transaction, Markforged will pay Höganäs around $32 million in cash, plus around 4.1 million shares of Markforged common stock. With today’s Markforged share price of around $1.9, the total deal works out to be in the neighborhood of $40 million in total. The companies expect to close the merger by the end of the summer.

The industrial 3D printing space has seen a number of interesting evolutions recently, as companies are starting a consolidation phase. Among other things, Protolabs acquired 3D Hubs, Desktop Metal snagged EnvisionTEC and Lumentum spent $5.7 billion acquiring Coherent. It’s likely that we’ll see a lot more activity in these markets as the use cases for 3D further solidify and the industry truly finds its stride.