Freeform Secures $67M to Scale AI-Driven Metal 3D Printing

Freeform, a startup specializing in advanced metal 3D printing technology, has secured $67 million in Series B funding. The capital injection is earmarked for scaling the company’s manufacturing platform, which seeks to bring the speed and agility of software development to the production of physical hardware.

The funding round attracted a diverse group of investors, including Apandion, AE Ventures, Founders Fund, Linse Capital, Threshold Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, and Nvidia’s NVentures. While the company did not officially confirm its post-money valuation, PitchBook data indicates it stands at $179 million.

From GoldenEye to Skyfall

CEO and co-founder Erik Palitsch, who previously worked on rocket engine development at SpaceX, established Freeform in 2018. His goal was to address the inefficiencies of traditional industrial metal printing, which he identified as overly costly and complex for mass production.

The new investment will support the transition from the company’s current GoldenEye platform—which utilizes 18 lasers for precision metal powder fusion—to a more powerful iteration. The upcoming system, branded as Skyfall, will incorporate hundreds of lasers to scale output to thousands of kilograms of metal parts daily.

AI-Native Manufacturing

Central to Freeform’s strategy is a heavy reliance on software-defined controls. Palitsch describes the platform as “AI native,” highlighting a strategic partnership with Nvidia that provides the company with access to high-end GPU clusters.

“I think we’re the only quote-unquote manufacturing company out there that has H200 clusters in a data center on site,” said Palitsch. “We’re running real-time physics-based simulations and learning all the different aspects of the end to end manufacturing workflow.”

By leveraging sensor data and real-time simulations, Freeform claims to be building a massive repository of information regarding the physics of metal printing. Cameron Kay, the company’s head of talent, noted that Freeform possesses more meaningful data on these processes than any other firm globally.

Growth and Market Positioning

Although specific client identities remain confidential, Freeform is currently producing hundreds of “mission-critical” components each week. To meet its growing contract backlog, the company plans to:

• Expand its current manufacturing facility.
• Hire up to 100 new employees.
• Deploy the Skyfall system to increase throughput and production flexibility.

Freeform enters a competitive landscape of “manufacturing-as-a-service” companies, joining firms like Hadrian, which recently reached a $1.6 billion valuation, as well as VulcanForms and Divergent, all of which are vying to modernize the production of robots, vehicles, and energy systems.