Additive manufacturing ‘2.0’ company Desktop Metal to go public

Business news | August 27, 2020

By Rich Pell

Electromechanical Materials & processes Automotive Development Kits Software & Embedded tools EDA & CAD tools

The company, whose stated goal is to make metal and carbon fiber 3D printing accessible to all engineers, designers, and manufacturers, plans to become publicly listed through a business combination with “blank check” company Trine Acquisition. The move, says the company, is aimed at accelerating its growth trajectory within the rapidly growing additive manufacturing market and capitalizing on the strong secular tailwinds supporting the reshoring of manufacturing and supply chain flexibility.

According to reports, the additive manufacturing industry grew at a 20% annual compound rate between 2006 and 2016 before accelerating to 25% compound annual growth over the last three years – a rate that is expected to continue over the next decade as the market surges from $12 billion in 2019 to an estimated $146 billion in 2030. This market inflection, says the company, is being driven by a shift in applications from design prototyping and tooling to mass production of end-use parts, enabled by the emergence of what it refers to as “Additive Manufacturing 2.0” – a wave of next-generation additive manufacturing technologies that unlock throughput, repeatability, and competitive part costs.

These solutions, says the company, feature key innovations across printers, materials, and software and pull additive manufacturing into direct competition with conventional processes used to manufacture $12 trillion in goods annually.

“We are at a major inflection point in the adoption of additive manufacturing, and Desktop Metal is leading the way in this transformation,” says Ric Fulop, Co-founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Desktop Metal. “Our solutions are designed for both massive throughput and ease of use, enabling organizations of all sizes to make parts faster, more cost effectively, and with higher levels of complexity and sustainability than ever before. We are energized to make our debut as a publicly traded company and begin our partnership with Trine, which will provide the resources to accelerate our go-to-market efforts and enhance our relentless efforts in R&D.”

The company says that it is ready to rapidly deploy its full suite of additive manufacturing solutions to existing and new customers on a global basis. Its product portfolio includes the Studio System office-friendly metal 3D-printing system for low-volume production, which has been shipping in volume for more than a year, as well as the new Shop System for mid-volume manufacturing and its continuous fiber composite printer, Fiber, both of which are expected to ship in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The company’s Production System has begun shipping to early customers and is expected to ship in volume in the second half of 2021. It is designed to be the fastest way to 3D print metal parts at-scale, achieving print speeds up to 100x faster than legacy technologies and delivering thousands of parts per day at costs competitive with traditional manufacturing.

In the transaction, the company signed a definitive business combination agreement with Trine (NYSE:TRNE), which is led by Leo Hindery, Jr. and HPS Investment Partners, a global credit investment firm with over $60 billion in assets under management. Upon closing of the transaction, which is expected in the fourth quarter, the combined operating company will be named Desktop Metal, Inc. and will continue to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and trade under the ticker symbol “DM.”

Leo Hindery, Jr., Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Trine says, “After evaluating more than 100 companies, we identified Desktop Metal as the most unique and compelling opportunity, a company that we believe is primed to be the leader in a rapidly growing industry thanks to their substantial technology moat, deep customer relationships across diverse end-markets, and impressive, recurring unit economics. Ric has put together an exceptional team and board of directors with whom we are excited to partner to create the only publicly traded pure-play Additive Manufacturing 2.0 company.”

Desktop Metal