A successful capital increase is significantly strengthening the innovation, management and business development of 2PP (two-photon polymerisation) 3-D printing specialist UpNano GmbH, which is based in Vienna, Austria. The fresh capital has been financed entirely by existing investors, among them IGO Industries, also based in Austria.

The investment will be used to further strengthen the ‘continuous innovation process’ around the highly successful NanoOne 2PP 3-D printer range. Developments will include speeding up the already fastest 2PP 3D-printing process in the industry, thereby making the technology ‘even more interesting for serial production’. The capital injection will also boost the company’s US expansion.

Denise Hirner, UpNano’s co-founder and CEO, said: “Our NanoOne range of printers already offers the widest range of printable sizes; and with 8 million voxels per second it also offers the highest speed on the market — and can print with living cells, but that is just the start. Even faster manufacturing speeds will enable true series production and more innovations will address the needs of specific industries. To this end we will expand our R&D department and intensify our efforts.

“Two recent patent applications concerning printing speed emphasise our commitment to ongoing optimisation and innovation. Furthermore, UpNano’s engineers are currently addressing a well-known complication of 2PP 3-D printing that compromises precision when producing large-scale specimens; their solution will hit the market soon.”

Regarding UpNano’s US expansion, this was initiated in April when the company recruited Erika Bechtold, formerly director of technology commercialisation at Harvard’s Office for Technology Development.

Denise Hirner added: “A first unit has already been sold to an industry customer in the US and negotiations with academic partners there are progressing well. In the wake of this immediate success, the US activities will be intensified, along with establishing facilities in the USA for permanently demonstrating first-hand the capabilities of the NanoOne range of printers. We know from experience that people are flabbergasted when they realise what big technical advantages are contained within the small bench-top-size of our NanoOne printer.”