Since the Covid-19 pandemic first began one of the most prominent issues felt worldwide is supply chain disruption. Manufacturers everywhere struggled and are still facing difficulties producing furniture, baby formula, car parts and much more. An easy, but hard to come by solution is to fuel up local production and limit the stress put on global outsourcing.
Cambridge-based Foundation Alloy was founded earlier this year to do just that.
The four-month-old vertically integrated metal part production startup pulled in $10.5 million this week in its seed funding round co-led by Material Impact and The Engine, a venture firm that spun out of MIT.
Foundation Alloy plans to use its new capital to fuel the commercialization of its high performance, energy-efficient 3D printing production of metal parts. Additional funding will go toward hiring and obtaining a pilot facility to scale its technology.
“Metal is involved in some way across almost every industry in the world, yet we continue to rely on materials and processes developed in the 1950s,” Foundation Alloy co-founder and CEO Jake Guglin said in a statement. “The newest, most innovative applications need a new foundation of advanced materials and processes to build on. By enabling a higher echelon of performance, while also increasing the speed, flexibility and reliability of the metal parts supply chain, we will support the next generations of products in critical industries.”
According to the company, the use of its art binder-jet 3D printing technology allows metal to be produced in less time and at lower temperatures using 50 percent less energy than traditional production methods.
“Foundation Alloy sits at the crossroads of three critical, societal challenges and opportunities: greener production is a global imperative, additive manufacturing is picking up speed and U.S. manufacturing is a national priority,” Milo Werner, general partner at The Engine, said in a statement. “The team’s combined scientific and industry expertise coupled with its passion and readiness to take on something as transformational as reimagining the metal parts supply chain from the materials-level up, is truly representative of what The Engine views as Tough Tech.”
