Wikifactory secures $2.5M in pre-series A funding to expand its manufacturing marketplace

Wikifactory, an online platform for collaboratively creating physical products, has today announced it has secured $2.5M in pre-series A funding from existing shareholders and new investors including, Seier Capital, the investment vehicle of Lars Seier Christensen. This brings Wikifactory’s funding to date to a total of nearly $8M. 

Wikifactory enables developers, designers, engineers and startups from across the globe to collaborate, prototype and produce hardware solutions in real-time that solve real world problems. The company is working to build the Internet of Production, which is an emerging concept of a distributed, interoperable, open standards-based system, linking together product definitions, software services, and manufacturing-as-a-service (MaaS) solutions. 

More than 130,000 product developers, from over 190 countries, are currently using the platform to build robotics, electric vehicles, drones, agri-tech, sustainable energy appliances, lab equipment, 3D printers, smart furniture and biotech fashion materials, as well as medical devices. 

The latest funding round will be used to grow its manufacturing marketplace which soft-launched earlier this year. The marketplace, which introduces an additional revenue stream for Wikifactory, will offer an online solution for anyone to prototype and produce hardware, anywhere. It offers online quotes, global delivery, and faster production times for CNC machining, sheet metal, 3D printing, and injection moulding with 150+ materials and presets via both global and local manufacturers.

Since its beta launch in 2019, Wikifactory has grown rapidly, with the business securing more than $5M in seed funding up to that year and more than doubling its number of users. The company then launched one of its current flagship products, the Collaborative CAD Tool which is used by startups, SMEs and corporates and enables product developers of all skill levels in virtually any industry to explore, review and discuss 3D models in over thirty file formats in real-time, whether at work, at home, or on-the-go. A ‘google doc for hardware’.

Lars Seier Christensen, Seier Capital, said: "The world of manufacturing is going online and with that, opportunities for new players have emerged. Wikifactory is well-positioned to become the go-to-platform for developing and making physical products, and the opportunities to disrupt the entire value chain from design to production in a multi-trillion dollar industry are staggering. The collaboration with my current project, Concordium blockchain, will help create a safe environment where all participants can identify themselves with certainty and protect their intellectual property rights.”

Nicolai Peitersen, Danish-born Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Wikifactory said: “Wikifactory is working towards a bold, completely online alternative to the world's fragile supply chain model. We’re really pleased that our investors want to make our vision become a reality and their expertise will help us. For example, Lars Seier Christensen will bring his blockchain expertise to the real world of manufacturing. We are in a solid position to go mainstream and having their knowledge and experience will enable us to expand into new opportunities and markets for manufacturing and supply chain management.”

Headquartered in Copenhagen, Wikifactory is forging new partnerships in Europe that promote open innovation and rethink the future of product collaboration. The company has partnered with OPEN!NEXT, on a 36-month project enabling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across seven European countries to engage in communities with consumers and makers, to fundamentally change how products are designed, produced and distributed. As part of the partnership, Wikifactory is launching a new phase together with 12 SMEs in the fields of user electronics, built-to-order furniture and eco-friendly mobility, facilitating the hardware development process all in one space, all online. One of these innovative partnering enterprises is Manyone, a strategic design business with offices around the world, which is looking into augmented reality (AR) and how to use the power of collaboration to design experience-enhancing AR devices of tomorrow.

Additionally, Wikifactory has partnered with the Danish AM Hub - Denmark’s national focal point for Additive Manufacturing (AM), to help Danish production companies become world leaders in using AM for production. This partnership aims to bring about a radical transformation to Big Industry that will enable almost every product imaginable to be collaboratively made online in the next few years. Together, they will propel Denmark as the leader in sustainable manufacturing practices.