3D software and 3D printing service provider Materialise has reported its financial results for the third quarter of 2018. For the period ended September 30, 2018, the company reported a revenue increase of 44.6% up to €46.7 million, over €32.3 million for the same period in 2017.
A strong performance across all segments: Materialise Medical, Materialise Software and particularly Materialise Manufacturing (including metal casting expertise from recently acquired ACTech) are credited with driving the rise.
Fried Vancraen, Founder and CEO of Materialise who won the 2018 3D Printing Industry Outstanding Contribution Award says, “What makes me particularly proud and confident in the future is that in every segment, the focus on a continuous improvement of our operational excellence has not refrained our teams from simultaneously strengthening our strategic product and positioning,”
“[…] Based on the general state of performance, we can confidently conclude that the backbone systems [sic.] Materialise has been developing for additive manufacturing are well-positioned to power the growth of additive manufacturing for our customers in many application fields.”
Materialise revenue by segment
Materialise Medical encompasses the company’s design and production services for healthcare specialists. This segment includes sales of anatomical models, surgical planning guides, and 3D printed patient specific implants. Though the Materialise Mimics Innovation Suite software could also be counted in the medical segment, it is unclear whether this and related metal programs are recorded under Materialise Software instead.
Revenue for the Materialise Medical segment in Q3 2018 was reported at €12.8 million, up 23% on revenue from Q3 2017 which was reported at €10.4 million.
The backbone of Materialise’s business, the Materialise Software segment encompasses the company’s Magics Suite of products including the e-Stage platform recently launched for metal additive, Materialise Build Processor, Materialise Control Platform, Materialise Inspector and other packages.
In Q3 2018, revenue for Materialise Software was reported at €9.8 million, compared to Q3 2017 reported revenue of €8.4 million.
And finally, assuming 51% of the total revenue for the quarter Materialise Manufacturing, consisting of engineering consultancy services, co-creation, rapid prototyping and other end-use additive manufacturing applications, reported a Q3 2018 revenue of €24 million. For the same period in 2017, Materialise Manufacturing revenue was reported at €13.4 million, producing a variance of 78%.
| Revenues | Q3 FY2018 | Q3 FY 2017 | Variance £ millions | % |
| Materialise Software | 9,874 | 8,422 | 1,452 | 17.24% |
| Materialise Medical | 12,824 | 10,421 | 2,403 | 23.06% |
| Materialsie Manufacturing | 24,012 | 13,456 | 10,556 | 78.45% |
| Total segments | 46,710 | 32,299 | 14,411 | 44.62% |
Highlights and guidance
Other highlights for Q3 2018 at Materialise include a net profit of €2.3 million, or €0.04 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of €1.4 million, or -€0.03 for the same period in 2017. The company generated a gross profit of €26.4 million for the three months ended 30 September 2018, compared to a gross profit of €17.9 million in Q3 2017.
Revenue so far for the year, for the nine months ended Q3 2018, is €135.7 million, up from €97.8 million for the same nine months of 2017.
Consolidated revenue guidance for the full year 2018 was previously expected to be between €180 million and €185 million. In light of the most recent quarter and the nine months ended September 30, 2018 Peter Lays, Executive Chairman of Materialise, confirms that the company expects to be hitting there higher end of this range.
BASF update and Formnext teaser
Within the third quarter of FY2018, Materialise announced a €22 million strategic investment in award winning material developer and chemical giant BASF. Giving an update on the progress of this partnership Vancraen confirms that “several projects have been started and several actions have been implemented to execute on the strategic collaboration with BASF,” throughout Q3 2018, though the first product of these efforts isn’t expected until some point in 2019.
Providing a preview of what to expect at the upcoming Formnext exhibition in Frankfurt, Vancraen added, ” […] we’ll deliver another proof of this fruitful interaction between our manufacturing and software segments with a full release of the metal simulation module in Magics,”
“This simulation module which was announced almost a year ago in collaboration with Simufact is the result of extensive internal experimentation.”
Full Materialise Third Quarter 2018 Results can be viewed online here.
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Featured image shows the Materialise Mammoth 3D printer facility in Leuven, Belgium. Photo via Materialise.
