It may not sound familiar to European and US adopters of 3D printing but the Rinkak 3D printing service is soon going to become more popular in the West. That’s because Rinkak’s mother company, Kabuku has signed an agreement with a test undisclosed US based “3D printing factory” to be able to provide faster service to US customers.
Rinkak, which is the Japanese equivalent of European born Shapeways, Sculpteo and iMaterialise, is thus following in Shapeways’ footsteps in establishing a direct presence in the ever so important US market, made up of many early adopters of the new technologies.
The company said it will take advantage of its US foothold to grow its 3D printable objects marketplace and 3D printing service while, at the same time, it will make its own digital information processing system available to the partner company. This will include services such as automatic quotation, manufacturing management and delivery management thus contributing to drastically cut operational costs.
A few weeks ago Kabuku secured $2 million in financing from a company called Cyber Agent Ventures, which was intended to be used to improve its service and accelerate its global reach, with the intention of pushing forward strategic alliances with companies in North America, as well as Europe and Asia. As is often the case for Japanese companies: “said and done”.
Kabuku also states that it will continue to push forward alliances with 3D printing factories in regions such as North America, Europe and Asia to expand its global service.