Having started with two founders, a single 3D printer and a bicycle in Amsterdam, 3D Hubs sure has come a long way.
Thanks to their ability to interconnect a network of on-demand manufacturers and provide a near-seamless user experience, 3D Hubs has amassed a ton of data on the 3D printing market. Trends, transaction data, market leaders—all valuable industry information that could have quietly lived in a company meeting deck, closed off from the outside world. Thankfully, 3D Hubs is a company hell-bent on the progression of the 3D printing industry as a whole.
The company recently released their 3D Printing Trends Q1 2019 Report analyzing five different data sources: transaction data, interviews from 3D printing market experts, independent surveys of 400 businesses closely linked with the industry, and reviews from the industry’s news and market reports. This data lets readers gain a deeper insight into the additive manufacturing industry and gives people in business a heads up as to whether or not they should invest in the technology for a specific sector.
For instance, transaction data shows that 31% of 3D prints were made for industrial purposes as compared to electrical uses which stand at 21%. Using survey data, it can be seen how 50% used online services for industrial parts, but only 38% of the said 50% use 3D printing for end-use parts, as compared to the 91% of all the companies who use 3D printing just for prototyping. Couple this with interviews from experts and you can see how the limitations of 3D printing applications can be attributed to lack of awareness and not the ability of a person to use the technology.
The report is also useful from a business standpoint. Several key findings show 75% of 3D Hubs’ consumer base is made up of small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs). 49% of these transactions happen in North America while 41% occur in Europe, with the most prints coming from California and the UK. Using this data, folks looking to get into the 3D printing business can focus on these locations to capitalize on the demand in the area.
The report also includes a recap of 2018’s past 3D printing trends and events as well as various heat maps which show the demand for 3D printing in different areas of the world. The demand in each country is then broken down by industry, application, materials used, and the printing process. Finally, it caps things off with numbers and figures which predict the forecasted growth of the 3D printing market.
Further, this also comes as 3D Hubs announced its $18 million Series C funding round courtesy of Endeit Capital. The fund is primarily aimed to advance 3D Hubs’ automation of important manufacturing features such as design validation, quoting, and smart order routing to its global suppliers. This new funding round, when added to past funding from Hearst Ventures, EQT Ventures, Balderton Capital, Booking.com’s founder Arthur Kosten, and Ultimaker founder Erik de Bruijin, brings 3D Hubs’ funding to a total of $30 million.
