Maxim Lobovsky is a businessman known as the co-founder of Formlabs, a 3D printing technology developer and manufacturer
Education
Maxim Lobovsky received a Bachelor’s degree in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 2008. Lobovsky also earned a Master’s degree in Media Arts and Sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011.
Early Career
In 2005, Maxim Lobovsky worked as a research assistant at Advanced Fiber Engineering, LLC and lasted until 2008. While working as a research assistant, Lobovsky also worked for his internship at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 2006 and lasted for three months. In 2008, Lobovsky worked at Cornell Computational Synthesis Lab as a research assistant, until 2009. In the same year, Lobovsky worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a research assistant until 2011.
Formlabs
As a Program in Media Arts and Sciences master’s student, Lobovsky enjoyed access to three-dimensional printers to create necessary components for his projects, designed and printed to spec. Lobovsky could see the possible applications of 3D printing for architects, designers, engineers, and other small businesses; however, the machines he used were prohibitively costly.
Lobovsky worked with two of his friends, David Cranor, and Natan Linder, to build the first small-scale, inexpensive stereolithography 3D printer for prosumers or professional consumers, and started Formlabs. In September 2011, Lobovsky and two others officially founded Formlabs, a 3D printing technology developer and manufacturer in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Fundings
On November 23, 2011, the brand new startup Formlabs raised $1.8 million in their early seed funding, led by SOSV, a global venture capital firm providing multi-stage investment to develop and scale founders’ big ideas for positive change, with other investors including Mitchell Kapor (Lotus Software founder), LaunchCapital, Kima Ventures, Joi Ito (MIT Media Lab Director), Innovation Endeavors, Charlie Songhurst, and Acequia Capital. Formlabs has secured crowdfunding amounting to $2.9 million on Kickstarter on October 25, 2012. Formlabs introduced the Kickstarter project to bring Form 1, their 3D printer, into production.
Formlabs closed an additional $19 million on October 24, 2013, in a Series A round of funding led by DFJ Growth, a late-stage global venture capital firm that provides capital to companies in seed, early, growth stages, joined by SOSV, Pitango Venture Capital, Innovation Endeavors, Eyal Gura, and Acequia Capital. Formlabs designs to manage the funds in developing its product, research teams, and design while increasing its marketing and customer support capabilities internationally.
On August 4, 2016, Formlabs received in a Series B round of funding of $35 million led by Foundry Group, a venture capital firm focused on making investments in early-stage information technology, with investors including Pitango Venture Capital, DFJ Growth, Tyche Partners, Pascal Cagni (Apple’s former head in Europe), Founder Collective, and C4 Ventures.
On April 4, 2018, Formlabs has raised $30 million in a Series C funding, led by Tyche Partners, a venture capital who invests in early-stage technology companies in TMT, consumer and semiconductor space; with other investors including Pitango Venture Capital, Foundry Group, DFJ Growth, UpNorth Investment Limited, and Shenzhen Capital Group.
The funding will be used to broaden Formlab’s product portfolio, and scale operations particularly in China and Asia. Formlabs already has 100 employees in Europe, more than 300 in the US, and an undisclosed number of employees in Japan and China. The next stage in the growth will accelerate maturation in these Asian markets. The Series C round brings the total funding to $85 million.
On August 1, 2018, Formlabs received in its latest funding of $15 million, led by New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare globally; with existing investors Shenzhen Capital Group and New Enterprise Associates. The company has eventually achieved its unicorn status. The latest round produces its total funding amounting to $100 million and puts the company in the relatively rare air of hardware startups with valuations of $1 billion. Along with the new funding, the company is also Jeff Immelt, a former GE CEO to its board of directors.
Formlabs has raised overall funding of $103.7 million.
Acquisition
On May 3, 2016, Formlabs acquired one of the fastest growing 3D printing communities online that hosts a flourishing marketplace of 3D designs, Pinshape. By continuing to broaden its already robust ecosystem of 3D printing offerings, Formlabs further sets the new benchmark in professional desktop 3D printing with Pinshape.
In 2015, Formlabs opened its second office in Berlin, Germany. In the same year of August, a former iGo3D’s co-founder, Michael Sorkin, joined the company as the managing director of their European headquarters.