Kid-safe 3D printing pen CreoPop gets 6-digit investment led by 500 Startups

Existing 3D printing pens are dangerous for kids due to their metal tips that heat up to melt plastic. But Singapore-headquartered startup CreoPop has developed a variant that uses a photosensitive resin which turns solid upon exposure to UV light. The company is believed to be the first to develop a pen-shaped 3D printer with resin ink. It launched a crowdfunding campaign earlier than its competitor – the Polyes Q1.

CreoPop got another dose of validation today. The company revealed that it has raised a mid-six-digit funding round led by 500 Startups with participation from Ruvento Ventures and other private investors. CreoPop co-founder Andreas Birnik says that he has raised, or have “commitments” for, more than S$1.2 million (US$892,000) in total.

This is on top of the US$186,000 the startup received from its crowdfunding effort. Not bad, yet considerably less that what plastic ink pens like 3Doodler or Lix raised.

But Birnik adds that if all goes well, he can close a second seed round which could bring total funding – minus the money from crowdfunding – to at least S$1.5 million (US$1.1 million). CreoPop hopes to get products onto shelves in the US by the second quarter of this year. If sales meet expectations, the firm would kickstart series A discussions in the third quarter.

Production is underway in Shenzhen, China since December last year, with a ship date pegged at April 2015. The startup is still waiting for the first batch to roll off the assembly line. It’ll have to cross its fingers that a clone won’t appear on the market – IP theft is common in the country’s factories.

“It has happened to others so it would be naive to think that we are somehow immune. There are two remedies in this regard: First, our three patent applications covering the pen, the method of 3D printing, and the inks. Second, the fact that the pen is useless without our proprietary ink that we manufacture ourselves. Copying electronics is quite different from copying a chemical substance,” says Birnik. The ink will be made in Russia.

While the CreoPop pen and ink will be the team’s ultimate focus for the next three months, it is already working on two new products related to 3D printing.

Khailee Ng, managing partner of 500 Startups, says: “We strongly believe in the 3D printing sector. CreoPop specifically will not only bring this game changing technology to wider commercial applications, but also into households. I grew up using Lego blocks to make 3D objects. This generation will grow up using CreoPop.”

That’s a lot of promise for a product that hasn’t launched yet. Nonetheless, this toy, which starts at US$119, has the potential to gain traction among kids due to a wide variety of inks with cool effects. CreoPop will sell aromatic inks, inks that glow in the dark, inks that change color according to the temperature, and more. The novelty means parents could purchase more ink after getting the pen – and pile on the customer lifetime value (CLV ) for CreoPop.