FCF Advanced Manufacturing Venture Capital Report

FCF
Advanced Manufacturing
Venture Capital Report

The ‘FCF DeepTech Series’ is a quarterly series of reports tracking European venture capital funding trends within four main DeepTech verticals. We highlight deal counts, volumes, investor interests, subsector trends, geographic hotspots, IPO activity as well as M&A / trade sale activity. Each quarter one of the four verticals – CleanTech, Advanced Manufacturing, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Robotics – is examined individually.

Each report is a quick reference for investors, corporates and professionals for the funding trends within the respective vertical.

This edition of the ‘FCF DeepTech Series’ focuses on VC funding developments within the European Advanced Manufacturing vertical.

The European Advanced Manufacturing vertical has been split into four main subsectors:

Additive Manufacturing
Robotic Automation
Sensors and IoT Platforms
Industrial Process Software

Key Findings:

The Advanced Manufacturing venture capital sector continues to grow moderately: Investments in startups in the relevant Advanced Manufacturing sub-sectors have increased from approx. €539 million in 2020 to approx. €558 million in 2021 and already amounted to €529 million in Q1/22, largely driven be the €295m mega-deal from Exotec
Advanced Manufacturing continues to evolve: The number of deals has been steadily decreasing since 2019, while the average size of a funding round has multiplied from c. €1.7m in 2019 to €3.4m in 2021 and €24.8m in Q1/22. This growing share of later-stage financing indicates a higher maturity of the sector and its companies.
The UK is the leading country for Advanced Manufacturing investments by number of deals, while France ranks first by deal volume with €596m. The French volume is mainly attributable to Exotec.
The Robotic Automation & Additive Manufacturing sectors attract the highest funding:, With a deal volume of approximately €1 billion, the Robotic Automation sector leads the way, driven by megadeals from France’s Exotec. The Additive Manufacturing sector follows with €690 million, led by the Irish ProVerum. Other large funding rounds were closed by Actility, Blue Ocean Robotics, Automata and ProGlove.
In addition to the various EU vehicles, Innovate UK, Enterprise Ireland and Plug-and-Play were the three most active investors by number of deals, closely followed by German accelerator High-Tech Gründerfonds.
The largest M&A exit was made by 3D Hubs: The Dutch 3D printing company was bought by the US company Protolabs for €285 million.

DEEPTECH RESEARCH SERIES

The “FCF DeepTech Series” is a quarterly series of reports tracking European venture capital funding trends within four main DeepTech verticals. We highlight deal counts, volumes, investor interests, subsector trends, geographic hotspots, IPO activity as well as M&A / trade sale activity.
Each quarter one of the four verticals – Cleantech, Advanced Manufacturing, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Robotics – is examined individually.

Each report is a quick reference for investors, corporates and professionals for the funding trends within the respective vertical.