Eight L-PBF systems (from Velo3D and AddUp) and one EBM system up for sale as the company scales down industrial operations
Zeda is putting $20 million worth of 3D printers up for auction. That’s four Velo3D Sapphire systems (including two large XC machines), four (out of eight) Addup FormUp 350 systems, and one Arcam Q10 from GE Additive (now Colibrium Additive). The company is also getting rid of multiple CNC machines and other industrial manufacturing equipment from its Springdale (OH) facility, near Cincinnati. This is a major scale-down for Zeda, which had recently implemented a major scale-up program supported by over $50 million in new funding.
The Series B round included the participation of multiple new institutional and strategic investors, including Michelin and Fives Group (which explains the significant investment on AddUp machines) and Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation (a Mitsubishi Chemical Group company). It was jointly led by existing investors – Boutique Venture Partners, Berkeley Catalyst Fund, DOV Management, and Solvay Ventures.
Zeda was formed after PrinterPrezz, Inc. and Vertex Manufacturing completed the merger between the companies, both active in the advanced manufacturing sector. The new company under PrinterPrezz was rebranded as Zeda. It grew exponentially, organically, and with the help of strategic acquisitions. Vertex, which was one such acquisition, was founded and led by manufacturing pioneer Greg Morris (which also had a role as a Strategic. Consultant in the new company). After all the mergers, Zeda now had 140,000 square feet across multiple advanced facilities in Silicon Valley, California, New Jersey, Ohio, and Singapore.
The company always mixed a solid risk aversion strategy – mainly in the medical segment, leveraging Arcam machines – with risky investments in newer technologies and systems such as those from Desktop Metal for metal binder jetting, aluminum metal wire deposition (liquid metal jetting) with the ElemX (formerly from Xerox, now offered by Additec) for and even newer L-PBF machines such as those from Velo3D and AddUp.
At the time Greg Morris, CEO of Vertex Manufacturing and PrinterPrezz CTO said that the Ohio facility would focus on the installation of new additive manufacturing and post-processing tools to support all of the company’s existing customers as well as to support the increasing demand from the medical industry.
On the other hand PrinterPrezz’s Silicon Valley headquarters continued to primarily focus on medical devices, leveraging in-house regulatory experience, clinician-driven design, additive manufacturing expertise, and in-house nanotechnology development. The Fremont, California design, engineering and manufacturing center continued to maintain all requirements for medical device manufacturing including ISO-13485:2016 and all relevant regulatory requirements.
The equipment to be aucitoned off entirely and solely concerns the Ohio facility. Zeda had invested $20 million in the new state-of-the-art capital equipment to focus on large and small-format metal 3D printing and secondary processes, including CNC machining. This is exactly the amount that the equipment’s replacement cost is worth, according to the company in charge of the auction, New Mill Capital.