Kuaizao Technology Gets Hundreds of Millions in Series B Funding Led by Hillhouse and Meituan, Formerly Held 3D Printing Industry's Highest Crowdfunding Record

The new product has set the highest crowdfunding record in the industry.

Text by | Zhang Ziyi

Edited by | Yuan Silai

36Kr learned that the 3D printing company Snapmaker has completed a Series B financing of hundreds of millions of yuan. We have summarized the information of this round of financing and several highlights of the company:

I. Financing Amount and Investment Institutions

Financing Round: Series B financing, hundreds of millions of RMB

Leading Investor: Hillhouse Ventures, Meituan

Follow - on Investors: Shunwei Capital, Meituan Longzhu, Nanshan Strategic and Emerging Industry Investment. Existing shareholders Tongchuang Weiye and Orient Securities Capital continued to increase their investments in this round.

Use of Funds: Primarily for core technology R & D, recruitment of high - end talents, and content ecosystem construction to accelerate the popularization of consumer - grade 3D printing technology.

Historical Financing: The company has received cumulative capital injections of over 100 million yuan.

II. Basic Company Information

Snapmaker was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Shenzhen.

The company's mission is "to enable everyone to create freely in the physical world". It is the pioneer and leading brand of global consumer - grade multi - function 3D printers. Its product line includes three - in - one multi - function printers, independent dual - head printers, and high - efficiency multi - color printers.

Technological Highlights: As early as 2022, Snapmaker had built its own factory and production line covering nearly 10,000 square meters, and purchased and customized dozens of large - scale CNC machine tools and grinding machines. From product design, R & D and manufacturing to large - scale mass production, Snapmaker hopes to strictly control every process to ensure that the products have good quality in both internal performance and appearance craftsmanship.

For the latest flagship product, the U1 3D printer, the team found through analyzing over a thousand pieces of user feedback and in - depth interviews that although multi - color printing is the main motivation for users to purchase new equipment, there are common pain points such as low efficiency and material waste. Based on its past technological accumulation in multi - tool head collaboration and self - made high - precision components, the U1 innovatively launched the SnapSwap™ independent four - head parallel system, which enables rapid switching of multiple materials, especially expanding the new application space for multi - color flexible soft materials and significantly improving printing efficiency and stability. It is 5 times faster and saves 5 times the material, bringing users a smooth and colorful creative experience.

Currently, all crowdfunding orders for the U1 have been shipped. It is planned to be launched globally in the first quarter of 2026, and the company's revenue is expected to increase several times next year.

III. Market Size

According to the prospectus of Creality 3D and data from CIC, from 2020 to 2024, the global consumer - grade 3D printing industry market size (in terms of GMV) increased from 1.5 billion US dollars to 4.1 billion US dollars, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 28%. It is expected that from 2025 to 2029, the market size will increase from 4.9 billion US dollars to 16.9 billion US dollars, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 33% from 2024 to 2029.

From the perspective of the equipment side, from 2020 to 2023, the annual global shipment volume of consumer - grade printers basically remained at around 3 million units. In 2024, it exceeded 4 million units, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 10.2%. It is expected to reach 13.4 million units by 2029, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 26.6% from 2024 to 2029.

IV. Company Performance

Snapmaker has set multiple industry records through several crowdfunding campaigns, demonstrating its strong market appeal and product innovation ability.

2017: Launched the first desktop - grade all - metal three - in - one 3D printer, Snapmaker Original, and raised 15 million yuan in its first Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.

2019: Snapmaker 2.0 raised over 54 million yuan in its Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, setting the highest crowdfunding record in the global technology category and the 3D printing industry. It also pioneered the three - in - one multi - function sub - category and has the highest global market share in this sub - market.

2025: The flagship product, the U1 3D printer, achieved a crowdfunding result of over 150 million yuan (about 20 million US dollars), becoming the 3D printing project with the highest crowdfunding amount in global history. It received support from over 20,000 users, proving the strong market demand for high - efficiency multi - color printing.

V. Team Background

Chen Xuedong, the founder of Snapmaker, was born in Quanzhou, Fujian in 1989. He has loved Lego and engineering technology since childhood. He won the championship in the WRO International Robot Olympiad in high school and was admitted to Xiamen University without examination. He is a senior maker with over 20 years of experience. He once worked at the AVIC Xi'an Institute, a leading domestic aerospace engine research institute, for two years and then came to Shenzhen to start a business. He developed and designed several robots during his college years.

VI. Thoughts of the Founder & CEO

Hard Kr: How do you view the future competition in the 3D printing industry?

Chen Xuedong: I believe that healthy and high - level competition will be beneficial to the development of the entire industry. Just like the NBA, the UEFA Champions League, and other top - level global sports events, professional athletes will attract more attention through high - level competitions, and exciting and professional games will attract more resource investments, thus cultivating more high - level athletes. This is a virtuous circle.

We believe that the core of innovation is talent. We hope that more people can pay attention to this industry and join the 3D printing technology that is capable of changing future production and living methods. The growth of an industry requires the joint efforts of everyone. We hope that more outstanding talents can work with us to accelerate the transformation of the industry and create the future of the industry together.