Munich, Germany — Kumo­vis, deve­lo­per of the world’s first 3D prin­ter with clean­room inte­gra­tion, has successfully closed its Series A finan­cing round of €3.6 million. With Reno­lit SE and Solvay Ventures, the Munich-based start-up has found two more part­ners to further pursue its path of estab­li­shing indus­trial addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring systems for proces­sing high-perfor­mance poly­mers. High-Tech Grün­der­fonds and Ffilipa Venture Capi­tal, the two inves­tors who alre­ady supported Kumo­vis in the seed finan­cing, also parti­ci­pa­ted in the Series A. The co-foun­ders of Kumo­vis are Stefan Leon­hardt, Dr. Miriam Haerst, Alex­an­der Henham­mer, Sebas­tian Pammer, Stefan Fischer (photo from left to right).

The 3D prin­ting systems deve­lo­per is opening up new markets, acce­le­ra­ting growth and enab­ling medi­cal device manu­fac­tu­r­ers to realize the full poten­tial of high-perfor­mance poly­mers. “From the begin­ning, our goal has been to enable medtech compa­nies and clinics alike to 3D print high-perfor­mance poly­mers to produce medi­cal devices of virtually any type. The intro­duc­tion of the Kumo­vis R1 3D prin­ter in 2019 has taken addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring with medi­cally appro­ved poly­mers to a new level in terms of mecha­ni­cal proper­ties, aesthe­tics, repro­du­ci­bi­lity and usabi­lity,” Stefan Leon­hardt, co-CEO and co-foun­der of Kumo­vis.

Kumo­vis aims to streng­then its busi­ness case and acce­le­rate the company’s sustainable deve­lo­p­ment through its part­ner­ships with Reno­lit, a leader in poly­mer-based compon­ents for medi­cal devices, and Solvay, a global leader in high-perfor­mance specialty poly­mers. “We will use the invest­ment to enter new markets, further deve­lop our tech­no­logy and support the medi­cal commu­nity in brin­ging 3D-prin­ted medi­cal devices to pati­ents,” Stefan Leon­hardt, co-CEO and co-foun­der of Kumovis.

Decen­tra­liza­tion for shorter supply chains: Decen­tra­li­zed produc­tion capa­ci­ties through the use of 3D prin­ting tech­no­lo­gies shor­ten supply chains — and as a result, they also reduce the time it takes for medi­cal devices to reach pati­ents. The flexi­bi­lity of the Kumo­vis R1 system, which meets the requi­re­ments of medi­cal manu­fac­tu­ring, is parti­cu­larly advan­ta­ge­ous for manu­fac­tu­r­ers deal­ing with small series and pati­ent-adapted products. “By provi­ding an open 3D prin­ting system capa­ble of proces­sing a variety of ther­mo­pla­s­tic poly­mers, we are enab­ling our custo­mers not only to manu­fac­ture medi­cal products on-demand, but also to 3D print directly at the point of care. Now we at Kumo­vis are looking forward to taking the next steps toge­ther with our new as well as proven part­ners,” Dr. Miriam Haerst, Co-CEO and co-foun­der of Kumo­vis.

The impres­sive team, as well as the product quality and perfor­mance charac­te­ristics, make us confi­dent that Kumo­vis is ready to funda­men­tally change manu­fac­tu­ring in the deman­ding medi­cal device indus­try. Kumo­vis and Solvay will work toge­ther to acce­le­rate the shift to perso­na­li­zed medi­cine, expan­ding the scope of high-perfor­mance specialty poly­mers in health­care. Toge­ther, we have the poten­tial to do the same in other industries.

Stéphane Rous­sel, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Solvay Ventures commen­ted, “This invest­ment is an important step for Reno­lit Health­care to further its momen­tum towards health­care inno­va­tion with part­ners and to streng­then its presence in the medi­cal device space.

Thomas Sampers, head of Reno­lit Health­care adds to further improve its R1 3D prin­ter and grow the medi­cal 3D prin­ting ecosys­tem, Kumo­vis is conti­nuously expan­ding its team and working with tech­no­logy and mate­rial compa­nies. The startup and medi­cal device manu­fac­tu­r­ers are also colla­bo­ra­ting to advance health­care devices.

About Kumo­vis
Kumo­vis was foun­ded in 2017 as a spin-off by alumni of the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich who successfully comple­ted cour­ses of study ranging from medi­cal to plas­tics engi­nee­ring — some of them with docto­ra­tes. The start-up enables the medi­cal field to process high-perfor­mance poly­mers in a repro­du­ci­ble and regu­la­tory-compli­ant manner using 3D prin­ting. Addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring is thus ready for health­care where­ver it is needed. In 2019, Kumo­vis laun­ched the R1 3D prin­ter, intro­du­cing the concept of an indus­try-speci­fic system for decen­tra­li­zed clean­room produc­tion. In addi­tion to support from inves­tors, the start-up is part of incu­ba­tion programs such as EXIST-Forschungs­trans­fer and ESA BIC Bayern.Contact.

About Solvay Ventures
SOLVAY VENTURES is Solvay’s venture capi­tal fund inves­t­ing in breakth­rough tech­no­lo­gies in the field of new mate­ri­als. Solvay Ventures has been opera­ting since 2005 and is curr­ently inves­t­ing from a global €80 million ever­green fund. Solvay Ventures focu­ses on early-stage (seed to Series B) invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties with an empha­sis on start­ups solving problems in sustainable resour­ces, energy trans­for­ma­tion, increased well-being, and digi­tal age. In addi­tion to capi­tal, Solvay Ventures lever­a­ges Solvay’s resour­ces to acce­le­rate tech­no­logy and market adoption.

About Reno­lit SE
The RENOLIT Group is a global specia­list for high-quality films, sheets and other products made of plas­tic. With more than thirty subsi­dia­ries in over twenty count­ries and annual sales of €1,059 billion in fiscal 2019, the company, head­quar­te­red in Worms — about 70 km south of Frank­furt am Main — is one of the world’s leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of plas­tic products. More than 4,800 employees conti­nuously deve­lop the know­ledge and know-how acqui­red over more than seventy years.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial. With a volume of around EUR 900 million spread across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has supported almost 600 start-ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups from the fields of digi­tal busi­ness models, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas. More than EUR 2.4 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,500 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 100 companies.