Metafold 3D secures $500K from Active Impact Investments to build 3D printing's “missing piece”
Summary
Born out of a geometry-focused consulting agency that has worked with major architecture firms and retail brands, Toronto-based software startup Metafold 3D wants to make it easier for manufacturers to design and 3D print complex parts.Armed with $500,000 CAD in pre-seed funding from Vancouver-based cleantech investor Active Impact Investments, Metafold plans to use the capital to grow its team, develop its platform, and support its beta launch later this month.The startup was founded in 2020 by a group of math, geometry, and architecture experts in CEO Elissa Ross, CTO Daniel Hambleton, and COO Tom Reslinski. The startup claims that its patent-pending tech enables engineers to reduce the amount of material required for products in the energy management, medical, automotive, and consumer goods spaces, and can also reduce the preprocessing, iteration, and manufacturing time required to produce certain products.In the United States, manufacturing and transportation account for a significant proportion of carbon emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The environmental and sustainability implications of this idea helped the startup land Active Impact as an investor, through the firms second fund (which has since topped out at $60 million CAD with the addition of EDC).Initially, Ross, Hambleton, and Reslinski thought Metafold would be a hardware company. There are hardware manufacturers who have these factories of 3D printers, and theyre ready to manufacture things, but there arent enough people designing things for 3D printing, because its hard.As Active Impact founder and managing partner Mike Winterfield puts it, Metafold aims to provide missing middleware to connect traditional design software to 3D printers.Theres lots of great design software out there, theres actually greatly improved hardware out there but there isnt an easy way to get your designs from traditional software over to that hardware, Winterfield told BetaKit in an interview.Metafold sees potential in targeting manufacturers using 3D printing to manufacture frontier technologies in the cleantech, aerospace, and medical sectors.Ross expressed excitement about having Active Impact as a backer, describing the firm as a great fit for Metafold due to its cleantech focus, and the expertise it brings on the sales and fundraising fronts, given Metafolds particularly technical founding team.RELATED: Aspect Biosystems raises $26 million CAD in Series A for 3D printing of human tissuesThe startups pre-seed round, which it raised via SAFE, represents Metafolds first venture funding to date. We really wanted to be early with our pick of who we think will be a winner in the 3D printing space.While Metafold isnt the only company trying to solve for this, Winterfield claims the startup is ahead of the field in terms of the lattice structures it has available and transfer speed between design software and 3D printers.