PostProcess Technologies is set to continue its unabated momentum as one of the hottest startups in Buffalo with $7 million in new funding.
The round is structured as convertible debt, which means it will become equity once PostProcess raises a larger round of funding with an independent valuation. PostProcess also closed a $4 million round of convertible debt last year.
The company expects to raise a Series A round in the $15 million range in 2019.
It's been a fast rise since 2016, when PostProcess consisted of three employees building out promising technology by engineer Daniel Hutchinson. PostProcess machines "clean" parts that have been through additive manufacturing processes. The company also installs proprietary software on its machines and sells the materials that clean the parts.
PostProcess is now 35 employees working out of its headquarters in the Tri-Main Center, and offers a unique solution toward a technology — 3-D printing — that's expected to change the way manufacturing is done around the world. CEO Jeff Mize said PostProcess was mentioned by name several times in the keynote speeches of two industry conferences he attended in the past month.
Mize said the new funding will be used to continue building the company's sales infrastructure, including distributors and staff in both the U.S. and Europe. The company will also continue to develop its software team.
"We're at a point now where we're scaling from an engineering and an operational perspective," Mize said.
He added: "We're going to expand our headcount rapidly."
PostProcess has long been backed by an extensive network of Buffalo-based angels, to go along with investors from other areas of the U.S.
This round is being led by a new group of investors co-managed by Chuck Lannon, a co-founder of Life Storage who also led the local investment team behind Athenex; and Kevin Christner, an active investor in Buffalo startups who was among PostProcess' early evangelists. That group is investing $2.23 million into the latest PostProcess round.
Other publicly named investors include $75,000 from the Buffalo Angels fund ($75,000) and $50,000 from the New York Ventures Fund run by Empire State Development Corp. Florida-based firm Caerus Ventures – whom PostProcess met during last year's 43North facilities – is adding $1 million.
PostProcess is the seventh local startup to acknowledge growth-oriented financing this year. Others include ACV Auctions ($31 million), Circuit Clinical ($1.75 million), UltraCell Insulation ($1.56 million raised this year) and Drone Energy ($1 million), Buffalo Automation ($900,000) and OmniSeq (undisclosed).