We don’t usually report on rumors but this is a strong and credible story, reported by multiple sources: support-less metal L-PBF 3D printer maker Velo3D is now expected to be the next company to go public via a SPAC merger, with Jaws Spitfire Acquisition Corp., in order to ride the next AM production wave.
Bloomberg, which seems to have been the first website to report on this story said that the merger will be valued at $1 billion and that no date has been confirmed for finalizing it. FDGT also said that neither Jaws Spitfire Acquisition nor Velo3D were available to comment.
Velo3D has been raising significant funding and is the only new-entry Western metal PBF 3D printer manufacturer to make it into the mainstream, where current industry leaders (GE Additive, 3D Systems, EOS and SLM Solutions) dominate the market. The company did so by introducing software-run capabilities to significantly reduce or even eliminate the number of supports necessary to 3D print the most intricate geometries, thus making L-PBF more competitive with other emerging processes. Supports are one of the biggest limitations in automating a production AM workflow based on metal L-PBF 3D printing.
Manufacturing on Demand
Investors included Piva, the venture capital investment arm of Malaysia’s Petronas; Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp.; Bessemer Venture Partners; Playground and Khosla Ventures. Velo3D said at the time the fresh capital will help it “reach sustainable profitability by mid-2022.”
Jaws Spitfire, led by Sternlicht as chairman and CEO Matthew Walters, raised $345 million in a December initial public offering and said it expects to focus on growth-oriented consumer-technology and related businesses. Tennis legend Serena Williams is on the board.
While SPAC mergers were considered as a “cheap” way to go public until a short time ago, they have been booming recently, after Desktop Metal became the first 3D printing company to announce such a deal and proving it could work well to raise capital and rapidly implement an expansion strategy. It was followed in this by its fiercest competitor, Markforged, and by a number of other companies active in segments, such as 3D printing and the space industry, that more and more people now expect could rapidly evolve into big opportunities as the entire World goes through a Pandemic-accelerated change in global supply chains and businesses.
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Author: Davide Sher
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