9T Labs secures $4.3 million

Founded in 2018 by founded by Chester Houwink, Giovanni Cavolina and Martin Eichenhofer, 9T Labs developed a proprietary technology that provides a seamlessly integrated workflow to mass-produce industry-grade carbon fiber composite parts, combining advanced software algorithms, 3D printing technology, and post-processing in one solution. The technology eases the use of this performance material, driving down lead times and production cost to accelerate the growth of this established $ 80 billion industry.

To achieve its ambition is of making carbon fiber composite materials as accessible as ordinary metal materials, 9T Labs has secured a $ 4.3 million seed round from existing investors around Wingman Ventures and new contributions from Investiere and the Technology Fund. Furthermore, 9T Labs is also supported by the ESA BIC program.

As part of the financing round, two experienced industry veterans join the board of directors; Andreas Wuellner and Bertrand Humel van der Lee. The two bring over 40 years of experience in fiber composite processing and manufacturing. Until the end of 2019, Andreas led the composites business of SGL Carbon, one of the leading global suppliers of advanced fiber composite solutions. Humel van der Lee, on the other hand, is an expert in sales, services and marketing related topics who was until recently chief customer operations officer and managing director at EOS, the world‘s leading Additive Manufacturing company.

“In contrast to plastic and metal 3D printing companies, which compete with the existing and established automated CNC manufacturing solutions, 9T Labs enters a market which has not yet seen standardized automation and software solutions for mass manufacturing, providing a huge market potential”, explains Humel van der Lee.

(Press release/RAN)
Photo, L-R: Martin Eichenhofer, Chester Houwink, Giovanni Cavolina.