You can still get backing if you do something useful, Additive Assurance finds

Venture capital investment has slowed this year. But if your company does something that solves a real-world problem and that customers want as a result, then you can still get funded, believes Marten Jurg from Additive Assurance.

Jurg’s company announced a $4.1 million raise last week, led by Significant Capital Ventures. AA’s products, which monitor the integrity of metal parts as a job is being printed, have international customers including Volkswagen (Jurg declines to name others.)

It will use the funds to add staff in technical roles and business development, as well as establish a new “Additive Manufacturing quality assurance centre of excellence” at its Melbourne headquarters.

“I think the thing that’s really important to mention, no matter what the flavour of the day is, is for companies that are doing good work and building real products with real clients, there’s always a market for that, and there’s always funding available for those businesses,” Jurg tells @AuManufacturing, citing the lower appetite for cryptocurrency-related businesses versus a year ago. 

“It may be difficult to get an introduction to some of these venture groups if you’re not tackling one of those hot button topics of the day, but if it’s still good work, producing good products, it speaks volumes.”  

Venture financing has slowed but not disappeared. According to Cut Through Venture, $638 million in deals were made in November, versus a little over twice that amount in November last year.

Smartcompany counted ten businesses including Additive Assurance announcing funding last week, cumulatively worth $80 million.

Encouragingly, the group included needle-free vaccination business Vaxxas ($34 million), rural wifi company Zetifi ($12 million), and plant-based chocolate manufacturer Loving Earth ($485,000.)

In episode 37 of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, Jurg tells us about what he’s noticed in terms of funding for high-tech manufacturing startups, the company’s progress since beginning 2019, the challenges that metal additive manufacturing companies need to address, and more.

Episode guide

0:28 – discovering a new way to spot very small defects in laser bed powder fusion printing while tinkering in the lab.

2:18 – Fault finding at university with a new machine from Germany.

3:35 – Being able to place material wherever you want and the complications this can lead to.

4:50 – “In this day and age you can call fund-raising rounds what you want.” 

5:31 – What their investment funding round will support in terms of people and facilities.

7:08 – Has the reported slowdown in venture capital investment been noticed?

8:50 – Why things are getting better for researchers wanting to pursue commercial outcomes. “We’re waking up to what’s happening around the world.”

10:56 – How the labour market looks for the company, which is currently hiring machine learning specialists.

12:40 – Who their customers are here and overseas.  

13:28 – There have been some interesting innovations in metal additive manufacturing, but the economics and quality still need to improve.

15:54 – Failure and success in metal AM jobs usually come down to what is being built and the experience of the users.

17:52 – We have incredible manufacturing ideas and talent in Australia, believes Jurg. We don’t need to make everything, but maintaining a strong ecosystem enables inventions to get off the ground.

Pictures: credit Additive Assurance

Further reading

ADDITIVE ASSURANCE CLOSES $4.1 MILLION FUNDING ROUND

AUSTRALIAN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING INNOVATOR AND VOLKSWAGEN ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP

15 MANUFACTURERS AWARDED $7.16 MILLION IN COMMERCIALISATION FUND GRANTS

RURAL WI-FI COMPANY ZETIFI SECURES INVESTMENT