Inventables builds desktop 3D carving (subtractive manufacturing) machines and software, including the X Carve and the now-discontinued Carvey. The company is concentrating this round on its Easel web-based design platform and other software offerings. Management says most of the funding will go toward enhancing Easel’s functionality and making it compatible with more third-party machines. Founder and CEO Zach Kaplan said the investment will help business customers produce products faster and more profitably. Inventables reports it is on track for 4 million carving projects this year using its services. The company is pursuing a transition of its platform into a more serious business product. Inventables offers a 3D carving platform and Easel, a free online 3D design and machine-control software. Its carving machines are used by manufacturers to produce signs, guitars, furniture and jewelry and by creative professionals for prototyping. Led by founder and CEO Zach Kaplan, the company raised a $5M Series B to expand its software and hardware platform. The round brings Inventables’ total funding to $10M. The company intends to use the new capital to grow its platform to over one million users. Inventables is based in Chicago, IL. Inventables operates an online marketplace for software, hardware and materials aimed at makers, designers and manufacturers, selling parts, machines and supplies used for prototyping and low-volume production. The company also develops and sells its own products, notably the Shapeoko CNC milling machine, and retails 3D printers and filament. Product pages surface community content—examples of what other designers have made—and host questions and answers; Inventables has open-sourced the software and hardware behind its milling machine. Inventables launched in 2010 and is based in Chicago. It raised $3 million in new funding, bringing total funding to $5 million, and plans to use part of the investment to expand into a new 25,000-square-foot facility to colocate product development, engineering and distribution. The company is hiring a larger engineering team to develop additional proprietary software and hardware. Inventables operates an online marketplace where vendors create detailed product profiles to generate sales leads and customers browse and submit inquiries. The platform lists over 1,500 different materials and technologies, ranging from electroluminescent fabric to concentrated cheese flavor powder. Vendors such as Dupont, RTP Company, and MDI Products can list for free, receive email notifications for inquiries, and purchase specific sales leads. The site uses cognitive technology that learns buyer interests and suggests similar products to potential customers. Launched in January, Inventables is already attracting attention from Fortune 500 companies and brands including Procter & Gamble, Palm, Microsoft, PING Golf Clubs, and Kraft Foods. The company recently closed a $2 million funding round from True Ventures to fund further product development and to hire additional software engineers.

Total raised

$22M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Series C

Latest activity

Jul 2019