CASTOR raises $3.5 million seed+ round lead by Xerox

3D printing tech company CASTOR, which enables leading manufacturers to maximize additive manufacturing, opportunities, closed a $3.5 million seed+ round. The round includes two new investors — Xerox, a global technology company, which recently launched its ElemX 3D liquid metal printer for Metal Additive Manufacturing, and Spring Ventures, a Tel Aviv based publicly-traded company.

Led by Aviv Refuah, Spring Ventures is invested in leading tech companies, such as Perimeter 81, Guesty, Gloat and others. The company’s existing investors have continued to increase their commitment to CASTOR’s success, and they also participated in the round. That includes Evonik Venture Capital, Mr. Jeremy Coller, TAU Ventures, and Chartered Group who aids the company in engaging with large enterprises in Japan and Singapore.

CASTOR was founded in November 2017 by Omer Blaier who is CASTOR’s CEO, and Elad Schiller who is the company’s CTO. The two met during their military service. We are grateful for this opportunity to collaborate with Additive Manufacturing industry leaders and add layers of intelligence and automation to help engineers realize the full potential of AM,” said Omer Blaier. “The investment will allow us to grow, and further address the needs of large enterprises.”

Castor’s platform, cloud-based or ‘on prem’, analyzes parts to identify which are a good fit for 3D printing, both technically and economically. The platform suggests best-match materials and 3D printing technology, carries out geometric analyses, identifies redesign opportunities, compares the cost of additive printing to traditional manufacturing, and simulates the likelihood of failure.

Using CASTOR, manufacturers are able to analyze thousands of CAD files to efficiently assess which parts are suitable for additive manufacturing and identify optimal materials and printing technology for production. Finally they can validate the design and evaluate failure risk using CASTOR’s stress test simulation

A ‘white label’ version of CASTOR was implemented by several industry leaders over the past two years, including Evonik and Nexa3D. As a result of using CASTOR’s platform, these 3D printing OEMs enhanced their AM business with a tailor-made platform. The ‘white label’ version can be used to boost sales and generate leads or to increase the usage of printing, materials, services and parts ordering.