Phase3D has closed an oversubscribed $2.9 million funding round to accelerate the adoption of its Fringe Inspection technology for metal additive manufacturing. Quest Venture Partners led the round, with participation from Trinity Capital, Kinisis Ventures, Leroy Street Capital Partners, Asimov Ventures, New York Angels Investment Group, and Chicago Booth Angel Network.
The round also brings Ray Farrell onto Phase3D’s Board of Directors. Farrell brings more than 25 years of experience advising technology companies on intellectual property strategy and commercial growth. “When the Phase3D opportunity came up, what stood out was the early customer traction. It’s special to have aerospace and automotive prime customers while simultaneously addressing top-level initiatives from the Air Force, Navy, and NASA,” Farrell said.
Phase3D’s Fringe Inspection system uses structured-light metrology to generate layer-by-layer heightmap data during metal powder bed fusion builds, giving manufacturers real-time visibility into what’s happening while a part is being printed. The company currently counts 25 enterprise customers across aerospace, defense, and industrial markets, with deployments spanning NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy.
CEO Niall O’Dowd said the investment “will catalyze faster adoption of real-time quality inspection for additive manufacturing.” COO and CFO Ben Ferrar described the company’s trajectory in three phases: developing the technology for repeatable measurements, deploying it to customers to translate metrology data into actionable decisions, and now scaling manufacturing to become the industry standard for in-situ inspection.
The funding will go toward expanding manufacturing capabilities, accelerating deployments, and investing further in software and data science. In practical terms, that means shifting from a high-mix custom build model to standardized manufacturing at scale.
Source: phase-3d.com
