Freeform Raises $67M for AI Manufacturing
Freeform raised a $67 million Series B to scale its AI-powered laser manufacturing platform. The funding highlights a growing convergence of SaaS, AI, and physical product innovation, making automated manufacturing more accessible.
- The company was founded by former SpaceX engineers Erik Palitsch and TJ Ronacher, who led development on the Merlin and Raptor rocket engines and saw the limitations of existing metal 3D printing for manufacturing at scale. - The Series B round included funding from Founders Fund, AE Ventures, Threshold Ventures, and NVentures, which is the venture capital arm of Nvidia. - Freeform's manufacturing approach is unique because it co-locates high-performance computing infrastructure, including Nvidia H200 GPU clusters, directly on the factory floor to run real-time physics simulations that control the lasers. - This latest funding brings Freeform's total capital raised to $104 million. - The capital will be used to upgrade the company's current 18-laser "GoldenEye" printing system to a next-generation "Skyfall" platform, which is planned to use hundreds of lasers to produce thousands of kilograms of metal parts daily. - Freeform's system uses a combination of advanced sensors and machine learning to monitor and control the metal fusion process in real-time, aiming to create digitally verified parts without the defects common in traditional 3D printing. - The company operates on a manufacturing-as-a-service model, targeting industries like aerospace, defense, and advanced energy with mission-critical parts already being delivered to customers.
