NEW BRITAIN, CT — Stanley Black & Decker and Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, recently announced the final participants of the Stanley+Techstars Additive Manufacturing Accelerator.
Beginning today and culminating later this year in a special Demo Day on Oct. 11, these 10 startups are co-locating to Stanley Black & Decker’s new Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence — Manufactory 4.0 — located in Hartford, CT. Selected participants, which include companies from Ireland, Israel, Canada and the United States, were chosen from a pool of applications from 11 countries with 50 percent from outside the United States.
“Companies were selected for this accelerator based on their level of passion, talent and drive, as well as their innovations within additive manufacturing,” said Claudia Reuter, managing director of the Stanley+Techstars Accelerator. “We worked hard to identify the most promising companies that we feel are best positioned to help move the manufacturing sector forward. We are confident they are all deserving of the potential opportunity to be nurtured and thrive under the guidance of Stanley Black & Decker’s mentorship.”
The 10 companies are as follows:
- Astroprint – Cloud Platform Designed to empower everyone to make, create and print with 3D Printers
- Calt Dynamics – Socially beneficial 3D Printing Technology
- Castor Technologies – The first intelligent 3D printing software for manufacturing
- Distech Automation – Developing an affordable/scalable solution for metal additive manufacturing
- Inventaprint – Product development platform for the hardware space
- Kwambio – 3D printing company focused on ceramics
- Mani.me – Focused on bringing together additive manufacturing, photogrammetric processing, and designers from around the world to innovate in the consumer industry
- Micron3DP – Developing high-speed 3D metal printers
- NanoQuan – Focused on unlocking nano-material potential to make plastics electrically conductive
- Structure3D Printing – Focused on enabling soft materials (beyond plastic filaments) 3D printing
“Additive manufacturing is one of the most important areas of technological transformation today and has the potential to influence the future direction of the industries in which our businesses operate,” said Marty Guay, Vice President, Business Development at Stanley Black & Decker. “We developed this accelerator program with Techstars to help empower these start-ups to continue challenging the status-quo and look forward to providing them with the guidance and support they need to thrive and bring their ideas and technologies to fruition. We’re also proud to do this in Hartford, CT, and are confident that programs like this will create a robust entrepreneurial community right here in our capital city.”
"We joined the Stanley+Techstars accelerator to access the amazing mentorship and support provided by Techstars to help us rapidly progress with Calt Dynamics, while also improving our business model and go-to-market strategies,” said Colin Keogh, CMO & Design Engineer, CaltDynamics. “Stanley+Techstars will help take Calt Dynamics onto the global stage of additive manufacturing.”
The Stanley+Techstars Additive Manufacturing Accelerator will focus on technologies that build 3D objects by adding layer-upon-layer of material. The materials range from plastics and metals to concrete, among others. The technologies may include 3D printing, rapid prototyping, direct digital manufacturing, layered manufacturing and additive fabrication. The applications of additive manufacturing are endless.
Stanley Black & Decker currently operates more than 100 manufacturing facilities globally, including approximately 35 in the U.S. and three in Connecticut. Three of the company's locations are designated as "Lighthouse Factories," plants that have partially implemented Industry 4.0 across their facilities from manufacturing execution systems (MES), to 3-D printing, virtual reality, robotics and artificial intelligence. Its advanced manufacturing center in Hartford is aimed at identifying technologies and processes that will form the core of the next industrial revolution and deploying those methods across the company’s manufacturing landscape.
The 10 companies have co-located at Stanley Black & Decker's new manufacturing center of excellence, called Manufactory 4.0, in Hartford and have access to mentoring and resources to grow their ideas into viable businesses and bring new technologies to market.