Fortify, the Digital Composite Manufacturing (DCM) company and recent winner of the Formnext 2018 startup challenge, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding.
Provided by five strategic investors, the money has been used to expand the Fortify team and create new potential partnership opportunities. To begin later this year, the company is also seeking a further $8 million in series A funding to launch the beta testing phase of its additive manufacturing system.
Kittu Kolluri Founder and Managing Director of Neotribe Ventures, one of Fortify’s seed investors, comments “We’re thrilled to count Fortify amongst our partners,”
“At Neotribe we place a high value on transformative technology, and Fortify continues to prove themselves as a pioneer in manufacturing for the digital age by democratizing the performance of advanced composites through additive manufacturing.”
Building composites from the ground up
Headquartered in Boston, MA, alongside established 3D printer manufacturers like Formlabs and Markforged, Fortify was founded on the principle of building materials “from the microarchitecture up.”
Focusing on composite materials, the company has developed its patented Fluxprint technology adding magnets to DLP 3D printing for the alignment of fiber reinforcements.
Fluxprint technology forms the basis of the company’s DCM service, alongside Fortify materials and INFORM generative design software. According to the company “By pairing high-performance engineering resins with specialty additives, Fortify utilizes DCM to produce the strongest resin available on the market.”
Fortify Digital Composite Manufacturing
Currently, Fortify demonstrates its DCM service with carbon fiber, fiberglass and ceramic composite materials. Inviting industrial partners to help expand this range of high strength resins, following seed funding the company launched the Fortify Fiber Platform, which already has the backing of Dutch multinational chemical company Royal DSM.
Karlo Delos Reyes, VP of Business Development at Fortify, comments, “By embracing open innovation and an open materials mentality we are giving our customers flexibility and a broad materials palette without the restraints of a single proprietary resin set.”
Adding to Neotribe Ventures, the other investors of Fortify’s seed round are Prelude Ventures, Mainspring Capital, Ocean Azul Partners, and McCune Capital.
Josh Martin, CEO of Fortify, concludes, “The support from our investors and partners is affirmation that the technology we’re developing is meeting significant needs in the manufacturing industry,”
“We are looking forward to continue to be an innovation leader in the space and grow our DCM capabilities and products.”
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Featured image shows a Flexprint 3D printed carbon fiber part for aerospace. Photo via Fortify
