In episode 37 of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski we hear from Marten Jurg, co-founder and CEO of Additive Assurance.
We learn about the company’s $4.1 million funding round last week, its progress since beginning 2019, what Jurg has noticed about investment appetite for high-tech manufacturing startups, the challenges that metal additive manufacturing companies need to address, and more.
Episode guide
0:28 – discovering a new way to spot very small defects in laser bed powder fusion printing while tinkering in the lab.
2:18 – Fault finding at university with a new machine from Germany.
3:35 – Being able to place material wherever you want and the complications this can lead to.
4:50 – “In this day and age you can call fund-raising rounds what you want.”
5:31 – What their investment funding round will support in terms of people and facilities.
7:08 – Has the reported slowdown in venture capital investment been noticed?
8:50 – Why things are getting better for researchers wanting to pursue commercial outcomes. “We’re waking up to what’s happening around the world.”
10:56 – How the labour market looks for the company, which is currently hiring machine learning specialists.
12:40 – Who their customers are here and overseas.
13:28 – There have been some interesting innovations in metal additive manufacturing, but the economics and quality still need to improve.
15:54 – Failure and success in metal AM jobs usually come down to what is being built and the experience of the users.
17:52 – We have incredible manufacturing ideas and talent in Australia, believes Jurg. We don’t need to make everything, but maintaining a strong ecosystem enables inventions to get off the ground.
Relevant links
Additive Assurance’s site
https://additiveassurance.com/
Venture capital funding plunges almost 75pc in a year https://www.afr.com/technology/spring-brings-a-boost-to-vc-investments-but-clouds-loom-20221005-p5bncu
