About Carbon
Carbon was founded in 2013 by Joseph DeSimone, Alex Ermoshkin, and Phil DeSimone, building on scientific research into a novel photochemical 3D printing process that DeSimone unveiled publicly at a widely watched TED talk in 2015, generating significant early attention for the technology's dramatic speed advantage over conventional layer-by-layer 3D printing methods. Carbon's core technology, which it calls Digital Light Synthesis, or DLS, uses a continuous process, originally developed under the name Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP), in which digital light projection and oxygen-permeable optics work together to cure liquid resin into solid parts in a continuous rather than a stepwise, layer-by-layer manner, producing parts with smoother surface finishes and more consistent mechanical properties across all directions than many traditional 3D printing methods, which often produce visibly layered surfaces and directionally weaker parts.
The company's technology bridges the gap between 3D printing used only for early-stage prototyping and 3D printing used for genuine end-use production manufacturing, since DLS parts, after an additional thermal curing step that activates specialized polymer chemistries, can achieve mechanical properties suitable for real-world functional use rather than only visual or fit-check prototypes. Carbon has built commercial partnerships with major global brands across industries including athletic footwear, where adidas has used Carbon's technology to produce midsoles with complex lattice structures not achievable through traditional injection molding, as well as automotive, medical device, and sporting goods applications. Carbon operates both by selling and licensing its 3D printing hardware and proprietary resin materials directly to manufacturing customers and through partnerships with contract manufacturing and 3D printing service bureaus that offer Carbon's technology to their own client bases. The company has raised very substantial venture funding from investors including Sequoia Capital, General Electric, and Adidas, reaching a valuation in the billions of dollars at its peak, positioning it as a significant company in the additive manufacturing industry.
