After breaking the crowdfunding record, this 3D printing company received investments from Meituan, Hillhouse Capital, and Shunwei Capital.

Meituan, Shunwei Capital, and Hillhouse Capital have jointly invested in a 3D printing company called Snapmaker.

On December 11th, Jiemian News learned that Snapmaker, a 3D printing enterprise, announced the completion of a Series B financing round worth hundreds of millions of yuan. The round was co-led by Hillhouse Ventures and Meituan, with participation from Shunwei Capital, Meituan Longzhu, and Nanshan Strategic Emerging Investment. Existing shareholders Tongchuang Weiye and Orient Securities Capital also increased their stakes.

Snapmaker is a hot company in the 3D printing industry this year. In August, its 3D printer, the Snapmaker U1, achieved over $20 million (approximately 150 million yuan) in crowdfunding on Kickstarter, breaking the historical record for the highest crowdfunding amount for a 3D printer. The official domestic price is 5,999 yuan.

Image source: Kickstarter official website

"We expected the U1 to have a good market response, but we didn't expect it to sell so well," the Snapmaker team said in an interview with Jiemian News.

The Snapmaker team introduced that traditional multi - color 3D printing has three major pain points: slow printing speed, severe material waste, and limited support for multi - material printing. This is because traditional solutions usually use a single nozzle with a multi - material switching system. For example, the AMS (Automatic Material System) of TuoZhu Technology needs to retract the current consumables and feed in new - colored consumables when switching printing colors. During the process, the nozzle needs to be repeatedly flushed to prevent color mixing, which causes waste of time and materials.

The innovation of the U1 lies in that it is equipped with four independent and always - preheated multi - color print heads, which can be physically replaced through the "SnapSwap" quick - change system. Therefore, it can change colors in 5 seconds and quickly switch between printing tasks of different colors or materials without interrupting the printing process. The official said that the overall printing efficiency of the U1 can be up to 5 times that of traditional solutions, and it can reduce about 80% of consumable waste.

Running shoes custom - made with the U1. Image source: Kickstarter official website

After the launch of the U1, other players in the 3D printing industry also began to launch similar solutions. For example, TuoZhu Technology launched the multi - color 3D printer H2C equipped with an automatic hot - end switching system, and Yuanzi Chongsu Intelligent, a subsidiary of Dreame, launched the color 3D printer Palette300 equipped with 12 independent nozzles. However, the products are still in the crowdfunding stage.

The Snapmaker team believes that its advantage lies in its strong engineering capabilities, which are closely related to the problems involved in the U1, such as precise mechanical quick - change and multi - head high - precision dynamic calibration. "Although there are no secrets in the hardware supply chain, we already have a certain time advantage, which is very important in the 3D printing industry."

This may also be related to the background of Chen Xuedong, the founder of Snapmaker. He won the championship in the WRO International Robot Olympiad in high school and was later admitted to Xiamen University without taking the college entrance examination. Before founding Snapmaker, he also worked at the Xi'an Aero - Engine (Group) Ltd. of AECC.

The Snapmaker team told Jiemian News that the U1 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.

Before the U1, Snapmaker's products were mainly "all - in - one" devices that integrated 3D printing, laser engraving, and CNC engraving/cutting. However, as the prices of consumer - grade 3D printers and laser engravers with single functions have dropped significantly, the "all - in - one" devices have gradually lost their price advantage, and the market size has also begun to decline. The U1 is the first product after Snapmaker's transformation.

After breaking the crowdfunding record, the most important task for Snapmaker currently is to complete product deliveries. According to the Snapmaker team, the existing factory can produce hundreds of printers per day.

Some 3D printing results displayed by Snapmaker

The rise of TuoZhu Technology has made 3D printing one of the hottest concepts in the investment circle this year.

In November, DJI Innovation, which rarely makes public external investments, invested in another Shenzhen - based 3D printing enterprise, Smart Printing. Then came Snapmaker, which was selected by Meituan, Hillhouse, and Shunwei. In addition, Yuanzi Chongsu, incubated by Dreame, also completed two rounds of financing this year, with investors including Skyworks Capital, Cornerstone Capital, and Junke Danmu.

The Snapmaker team said that the funds from this round of financing will be mainly used in three aspects: first, core technology R & D to continue to overcome the pain points of multi - color printing and high - speed prototyping; second, recruitment, especially for top talents in fields such as hardware R & D, AI software, and content ecosystems; third, building an open ecosystem to lower the creation threshold of 3D printing.

This is almost an important task for all 3D printing enterprises next year. Taking the construction of an open ecosystem as an example, Makerworld, a subsidiary of TuoZhu Technology, is one of the world's leading 3D printing content platforms in terms of monthly active users. According to Jiemian News, TuoZhu invests hundreds of millions of yuan in building the content ecosystem every year, which has formed a certain content moat and also driven hardware sales.

An executive of a leading 3D printing enterprise commented to Jiemian News that the Snapmaker U1 is a relatively outstanding product in the 3D printing circle this year. However, whether the company can succeed depends on whether the U1 can stand the test of the market after its launch, which is also the key for the company to stay in the top camp.

This article is from "Jiemian News", author: Lu Keyan. Republished by 36Kr with permission.