After launching in the US, Singapore’s 3D-printing pen CreoPop raises more funding

Singapore’s 3D pen maker CreoPop announced its pre-series A round of funding today from Russia-headquartered venture capital firm Emery Capital and other private investors. The amount raised, much like the hardware startup’s previous rounds, is undisclosed.

(UPDATE, 19/11: This story has been updated with comments and clarifications from CreoPop co-founder and CEO Andreas Birnik.)

The company says it has so far raised a total of US$2.75 million, in addition to over US$300,000 from crowdfunding and pre-orders for the pen. This includes the latest funding round, Andreas confirms to Tech in Asia.

“Investment in CreoPop is our debut on Asian venture capital markets,” Ivan Savelyev, CEO of Emery Capital, says in a statement. “The unique technologies developed by the company together with its management professionalism and the first-class business environment of Singapore allow us to be sure about the company’s successful future.”

The latest funding will be used for further research & development and to bring CreoPop’s product to more markets around the world.

CreoPop’s last funding was announced in June 2015. Since then, the company has launched its 3D-printing pen commercially, securing a deal in the US with retail powerhouse Best Buy in October 2015. The pen is also available from several US specialty and hobbyist outlets like B&H, Adorama, and Matterhackers. Andreas says two more US national retail chains are about to start selling CreoPop, but have not been officially announced yet. “We are rolled out in over 1,000 Best Buy stores which is very exciting for a Singapore startup,” he adds.

The startup is in the process of shipping the products out to crowdfunding backers. However, there have been backers who have voiced their displeasure at not yet receiving the pens they pre-ordered, while at the same time seeing the product available at retail. “We have now shipped to all backers who have completed the delivery survey (address confirmation) and paid for shipping,” Andreas says. The onus of satisfying backers, the people who arguably first believed in your vision, and the need to form an effective go-to-market strategy for your product, can be at odds with each other – especially for a startup with limited production capacity.

See: This 3D printing pen doesn’t melt plastic; it uses UV light to solidify ink“It is always a challenge to find the right balance,” Andreas explains. “There is not really a good solution to this problem, as backers also write to us every week arguing that we need to make CreoPop available in retail so that they can easily buy inks.” So one of the reasons CreoPop tried to make the pen and inks widely available was for even backers to be able to buy inks more easily.

Andreas adds that backers may not have gotten their pens before retail consumers, but the company has tried to reward their initial support in other ways. “To begin with, early backers have paid much less than the current US$129.99 retail price,” he says. “Second, we have offered all backers a 25 percent discount voucher for online purchases. Third, we sent one extra ink pack (worth US$19.99) to all backers who backed us during 2014. So we have tried to strike a fair balance.”

Despite the hiccups, however, Andreas is confident the startup did the right thing turning to crowdfunding for getting its product off the ground. “It provided early validation for the product which was important to attract investors,” he says. “It also gave us an audience who provided support and ideas for product improvement throughout the process.”

As well as looking to make CreoPop available to more markets, the company is exploring other possible avenues. A number of schools have already ordered the pens for educational purposes, for example. “We would love to find a distribution partner who is strong in the education segment,” Andreas says. Other B2B opportunities include possible white-label versions of CreoPop for toy companies as well as supplying ink for other 3D printer manufacturers, he adds.