Markforged, a 3D Printing Startup, Will Go Public in a SPAC Merger

Industrial 3D printing pioneer Markforged is gearing up to go public after a newly-announced merger deal with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) one.

Per details of the deal, which is expected to be finalized sometime this summer, the combined valuation of the merged companies is expected to be $2.1 billion, with approximately $400 million in net cash that will be earmarked for expansion, proprietary materials and product development efforts.

Once public, Markforged will trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “MKFG.”

The deal has received substantial support from Kevin Hartz, the founder and CEO of one and the co-founder of event management and ticketing website Eventbrite.

In a statement, Hartz noted that Markforged has already “reinvented the additive manufacturing industry and is well-positioned for robust growth benefiting from the velocity of digitization.”

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“When launching one, our priority was to partner with a company with exceptional founders, visionaries, and operators taking a differentiated approach in large and growing markets – Markforged ticked all of those boxes and more,” Hartz added. “We’re thrilled to be working closely with the entire Markforged team, comprised of highly engaged founders, visionary leaders, and world-class engineers, uniquely positioned to lead a revolution in modern manufacturing.”

Since its inception in 2013, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-headquartered Markforged has been a leader in 3D printing innovation. The company was the first to pioneer carbon fiber 3D printing, and in 2020 debuted The Digital Forge — cloud-based 3D printing software that utilizes a combination of industrial-strength 3D printers and AI in order to allow for a continuous learning process to improve design.

As Covid-19 has continued to lay bare the weaknesses of global supply chains, 3D printing businesses are poised to fill in valuable gaps in the manufacturing sector. To that end, Markforged seems particularly well-adapted: Prior to the announced merger, the company had already claimed to have the “largest connected fleet of industrial 3D printers in the world,” with more than 10,000 machines and more than 10 million parts printed across 70 countries.

Markforged will a slew of other 3D printing businesses that have recently gone public, including Materialise, Stratasys, 3D Systems, SLM Solutions, ExOne, voxeljet, and Desktop Metal.