The ambition to create physical products with the speed and simplicity of software development continues to captivate technology investors. Backing this vision are firms including Apandion, AE Ventures, Founders Fund, Linse Capital, NVentures from Nvidia, Threshold Ventures, and Two Sigma Ventures.

While FreeForm has not publicly disclosed its valuation following this funding round, Pitchbook data lists it at $179 million. According to CEO and co-founder Erik Palitsch, the new capital will support an upgrade from the company's current GoldenEye printing system to a next-generation platform. The existing system employs 18 lasers to fuse metal powders into precise components.

The forthcoming iteration, named Skyfall, is designed to utilize hundreds of lasers, enabling the daily production of thousands of kilograms of metal parts. This advancement represents the realization of a concept Palitsch and his co-founder, President Thomas Ronacher, first conceived in 2018.

The pair originally collaborated while developing rocket engines at SpaceX, where they observed that industrial machines for metal printing were often costly, temperamental, and poorly suited for large-scale manufacturing. They founded their company to develop a platform from scratch, prioritizing higher throughput, greater flexibility, and sophisticated software controls.

Palitsch describes Freeform’s platform as inherently "AI native," highlighting a partnership with Nvidia that provides access to advanced GPUs. "We’re running real-time physics-based simulations and learning all the different aspects of the end-to-end manufacturing workflow," he explained.

Sensors integrated into the manufacturing platform, combined with data from these simulations, allow Freeform to continuously enhance both production quality and volume. Cameron Kay, the company's head of talent, stated, "We have more meaningful data on the physics of the metal-printing process than any company in the world."

Although Palitsch declined to name specific clients, he confirmed the company is already supplying hundreds of "mission-critical" parts to customers. Current plans include hiring up to 100 new employees and expanding the company's facility to address its growing contract backlog.

The broader category of manufacturing-as-a-service has gained significant traction as venture investors show increased interest in funding ventures related to vehicles, robotics, and energy systems. For instance, Hadrian recently achieved a $1.6 billion valuation for its automated production work in defense, while companies like VulcanForms and Divergent have raised hundreds of millions to develop their own metal-printing services.