Arevo, the Silicon Valley company transforming composites production through digitalisation and automation, has unveiled Aqua 2, the world’s first high speed additive manufacturing system for large (up to one cubic metre) continuous carbon fibre composite structures. The system enables rapid, on-demand production of large custom composite parts.
In addition to higher quality, the Aqua 2 is able to print 4x faster than its predecessor.
The company closed their Series B financing round, led by Defy Partners and GGV Capital with participation from Khosla Ventures, Alabaster, and others. This will bring their total funding to $60 million. Defy appointed Brian Shin, an accomplished serial entrepreneur, investor, and Defy Scout, to join Arevo’s board which includes Hemant Bheda (co-founder), Sonny Vu (CEO), and Bruce Armstrong (Khosla).
“Arevo’s new platform enables fabrication of high strength, low weight carbon fibre parts, currently not possible with today’s standard techniques,” said Trae Vassallo, founding partner at Defy. “We are thrilled to be working with the team to help scale up this incredibly impactful technology.”
“Arevo is a compelling opportunity for us as it combines our three main investment foci: consumer internet, enterprise, and smart tech. We see fantastic potential in this market, and have backed Sonny before at Misfit. Arevo is led by an experienced team with solid technological foundation and 3D printing manufacturing know-how at scale – to offer breakthrough products at competitive prices,” said Hans Tung, a managing partner at GGVC.
“We are excited to have Defy and GGVC on board to bring not only capital but a vast amount of strategic experience. The strong interests in the company despite tough market conditions really reaffirm our vision,” said Hemant Bheda, Arevo’s co-founder and chairman.
These announcements come on the heels of Arevo’s crowdfunding campaign to make their first direct-to-consumer products, the Superstrata bicycle and e-bicycle, the world’s first true unibody custom 3D printed carbon fibre bikes. The campaign hit its goal of $100k in under 3 minutes after launch, and is now on track to surpass $5million from over 3000 backers.
“We are looking for additional mechanical engineering and process / materials science talent, especially people who are skilled with composites,” continued Bheda.
