Lumafield, a pioneering developer of accessible X-ray CT technology, announced it has closed a $35M Series B funding round led by Spark Capital, which also invested in ELISE, a few days back.
Existing investors, including Lux Capital, Kleiner Perkins, DCVC, and Future Shape, participated. The Chicago-based company has raised $67.5M, including a combined $32.5M in its Seed and Series A funding rounds.
Besides funding, the US company also announced the appointment of Victoria Holt and Santo Politi to the company’s Board of Directors.
Ms. Holt was previously the CEO of Protolabs and is a member of the boards of Waste Management, A.O. Smith, and Piper Sandler. Mr. Politi is the Founder and General Partner of Spark Capital, where his investments have included Oculus, Twitter, Wayfair, and Plaid.
Based out of Cambridge, Lumafield has developed the world’s first accessible X-Ray CT scanner for engineers. — Neptune industrial CT scanner. The company’s easy-to-use scanner and cloud-based analysis software allow engineers to see their work clearly, inside and out.
The company has made its Neptune scanner more than 300X faster, allowing it to scale from one-off scans in product development labs to serial inspection in high-volume manufacturing operations.
How does it work?
Behind the speed increase is a significant development in artificial intelligence. For example, CT scanners capture a series of two-dimensional X-ray images from different angles, then reconstruct them into a 3D model using the software.
Lumafield’s AI allows the company’s reconstruction process to achieve the same high-quality results with fewer two-dimensional X-ray images, reducing the time required to run a scan.
As a result, scans that previously took several hours can now run in a minute or less.
Combined with factory automation systems, Lumafield’s scanner and software can inspect products at high volume, automatically flagging problems such as dimensional inaccuracies and pores and cracks.
“Industrial CT has been out of reach for most production lines—until now,” says Eduardo Torrealba, Lumafield Co-Founder, and CEO. “With these speed improvements and Lumafield’s low price point, it’s now possible to implement 100% inspection with CT, catching invisible issues before they become costly problems.”
“The manufacturing world is changing dramatically,” says new Lumafield board member Victoria Holt. “Manufacturers are confronted with an increasingly competitive marketplace, radical shifts in supply chains, and ever-higher customer expectations. My experience leading Protolabs gives me an appreciation for the positive impact technology can have on manufacturing. Lumafield offers a technology, a team, and a perspective that promises to reshape the way products are made. I’m very excited to work with Lumafield to realize its vision.”
“At Spark, we look for entrepreneurs who have the souls of artists,” says Santo Politi, Co-Founder, and General Partner at Spark Capital, who led Lumafield’s Series B fundraising round and joined its board. “The Lumafield team has the deep technical expertise, a clear understanding of how their technology will change the manufacturing world, and a drive to reveal the hidden beauty inside the world around us.”
