Venture capital firm Red Dot Ventures has invested $482,000 USD in Pirate3DP, a Singapore-based startup that is developing an affordable, user-friendly 3D printer for the mass market.
Pirate3DP was founded by childhood friends Roger Chang, Brendan Goh and Tsang You Jun, as well as serial tech entrepreneur Neo Kok Beng, a professor at the National University of Singapore. The startup’s flagship product is the Buccaneer, which is currently in the prototyping phase and will be launched in the middle of this year. The team envisions the low-cost 3D printer as a “playground for artists to create, monetize and share ideas with others.”
“In a near future, everyone will have a 3D printer in their home sitting next to their paper printer and making plastic jewelry, kitchen utensils, toys, models, homework projects, and non-critical replacement parts. Nonetheless, current consumer models are either too expensive or too difficult to use. We intend to change that. Pirate3D will bring this technology to everyone’s homes by making it low-cost, efficient and user-friendly,” said Roger Chang, CEO of Pirate3DP.