LEGO and Stanley Black & Decker Invest in Evolve Additive Solutions
The $19 million equity investment and consortium of strategic partners will help advance the company's STEP additive manufacturing technology toward commercialization.
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Evolve Additive Solutions, the creator of Selective Thermoplastic Electrophotographic Process (STEP) technology, has announced the completion of an equity investment of $19 million led by the LEGO Brand Group with participation from Stanley Black and Decker Investments and a third undisclosed investor.
STEP, designed for automated manufacturing and factory-floor integration, allows users to utilize production-grade thermoplastics for volume manufacturing applications across multiple industries, including consumer, automotive, industrial and medical. The highly scalable and extensible solution combines Evolve’s proprietary technology with the capability of electrophotography, to produce additive manufactured parts that are said to meet or exceed traditionally manufactured parts.
“Evolve has entered an exciting new growth phase as we begin commercial development of our proprietary STEP technology,” says Steve Chillscyzn, CEO of Evolve Additive Solutions. “We are excited to have forged equity partnerships with world leading companies that recognize the production potential of STEP and are committed to working alongside Evolve to bring the technology to commercialization.”
“LEGO Brand Group has invested in Evolve because it is an attractive investment opportunity, which can benefit the LEGO brand. The LEGO Group has been using additive manufacturing technology for more than 20 years. Today, the company mainly employs the technology to create prototypes in the development of new products and we believe that the technology will become an even more important supplement to the current injection moulding capabilities in the future. With Evolve Additive Solutions we have found a very competent partner within this area,” says Per Hjuler, LEGO Brand Group business development.
“We are excited about the potential impact that Evolve’s unique Additive Manufacturing technology could have on the production of high quality medium volume plastic components for a number of our product categories,” said Tim Hatch Chief Technology Officer for Stanley Engineered Fasteners.
Other investors in Evolve Additive Solutions include Stratasys, Inc. as a minority shareholder as well as an undisclosed investor. BNP Paribas acted as exclusive financial advisors to Evolve. The senior management team of Evolve Additive Solutions brings over 40 years of combined experience in additive manufacturing and is supported by a very experienced Board of Directors with expertise in managing and counseling both private and publically-held companies.
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