Mantle, a provider of 3D printing technologies for precision metal tooling, announced that the company has reached a major milestone by securing $20 million in Series C funding.
Mantle’s advanced manufacturing platform, TrueShape, enables significant cost savings and provides unprecedented speed for its customers.
“Mantle is poised to revolutionize the global tooling industry,” said Alexandra Manick, Principal of Schooner Capital. “The company’s advanced manufacturing platform, TrueShape, is proven to deliver significant cost savings and, more importantly, unprecedented speed for its customers. This paradigm-shifting solution is readily adoptable and sorely needed to address persistent skilled labor shortages and accelerate product development timelines for industrial toolmakers and OEMs worldwide.”
“The fragile state of the global supply chain has triggered a massive reshoring initiative that sharply increased the demand for molded parts and thus toolmaking,” said Ted Sorom, CEO and co-founder of Mantle. “We’re navigating a twin set of hurdles: a toolmaking workforce in the U.S. that has shrunk by half over the past quarter-century, coupled with the rising costs and extended lead times brought on by constrained toolmaking capacities. This has driven manufacturers to seek out groundbreaking solutions. For our innovative customers, the adoption of Mantle’s tooling technology has emerged as a key strategy to enhance labor productivity, cut expenses, and drastically shorten lead times.”
The Series C funding will be critical to support Mantle’s rapid market expansion, scale manufacturing to meet demand, and develop new capabilities and materials. The company faces two challenges: On the one hand, the number of toolmakers in the U.S. has been cut in half over the past 25 years, and on the other hand, costs and lead times are increasing due to limited capacity. These factors are driving manufacturers to look for innovative solutions such as Mantle’s technology.
Heyco Products, a US manufacturer of cable protection products and electrical components, has adopted Mantle’s technology for its in-house molding and tooling operations.
“We purchased a Mantle system for two reasons: to reduce time-to-market for our products and to make our toolroom more efficient while attracting next-generation talent to Heyco,” commented Danny Anthony, Heyco’s Vice President of Operations. “By using Mantle to print mold tooling, we have already brought a new product to market two months faster than we would have otherwise. We also increased the throughput in our toolroom by giving our toolmakers access to the latest technology that makes them significantly more productive.”
General Pattern, a family-owned, specialized manufacturer of plastic parts, has adopted Mantle’s advanced 3D printing technology to produce production tooling with prototype lead times and minimize the need for full tooling production.
“We pride ourselves in our commitment to staying at the forefront of technology. Tackling both the decline of next generation toolmakers and the relentless pace of industry demand, embracing Mantle’s metal 3D printing technology was not just a step towards innovation, it was a leap towards securing our legacy,” said Denny Reiland, third-generation CEO of General Pattern.
Mantle’s precision metal 3D printing technology, developed specifically for printing injection molds, has played a central role in the production of millions of end-use parts. By focusing on manufacturing tools for mass production, the company has significantly reduced costs and production times, resulting in savings of over 65 percent and shortened development cycles by up to 90 percent.
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