Sales Partners Can Now Offer Full MakerBot and Stratasys Product Portfolio to Better Address Each Stage of the Product Design Cycle

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — February 2, 2016 — Today, MakerBot and Stratasys announced a sales partnership program that allows both companies to extend the cross-selling of their products and opens the door for sales partners to offer MakerBot and Stratasys 3D Printers. MakerBot is also launching a training program to familiarize Stratasys resellers and distributors with MakerBot products so they are better positioned to consult customers on the full product portfolio. Both companies’ 3D printers fit into different stages of the product design and development cycle. Organizations that use both can expect to significantly speed up product design, lower development costs and accelerate innovation. Additionally, customers will only need to address one reseller for access to a larger portfolio of solutions.

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One of many Robert Welch designs that was first prototyped on a MakerBot Desktop 3D Printer. (Photo: Business Wire)

“We believe that both Stratasys and MakerBot can greatly benefit from each other's strengths - and so can our customers,” said Jonathan Jaglom, CEO at MakerBot. “This collaboration between the two companies gives our customers access to a larger suite of products that is designed to speed up the design process and lower costs. The partnership program also empowers sales partners to better consult their customers on how to make their product development processes more effective and gain a competitive edge.”

MakerBot and Stratasys began rolling out the new sales partnership program in January. Stratasys’ sales team, resellers and distributors are now selling MakerBot 3D Printers and MakerBot’s internal enterprise sales team is selling Stratasys products. MakerBot resellers and distributors are also able to become a part of the Stratasys partner program. By combining product offerings, resellers can offer customers a more thorough understanding of the benefits of using Stratasys and MakerBot 3D Printers.

Both companies’ 3D printers complement each other and can help companies and educational institutions shorten product development cycles and be more creative. MakerBot 3D Printers allow low-cost, early-stage prototyping and enable employees to try more ideas by iterating on their designs earlier and more often. Once a design is iterated upon and finalized on a MakerBot, the engineer can send their design to a Stratasys 3D Printer to print the final product or a high quality prototype that meets the needs of more sophisticated product testing. Stratasys helps professional customers with prototyping, tooling, manufacturing and many other aspects of product development. Organizations, hospitals and educators without access to Stratasys 3D Printers can start prototyping on a MakerBot and then use Stratasys Direct Manufacturing (SDM) to have high quality 3D prints and parts delivered to them in a variety of colors and materials.

“What we tend to see in the market is firms experimenting with lower-cost 3D printers to assist in the development of early stage prototypes, and testing how 3D printing can transform their project development cycle,” said Joe Kempton, 3D printing analyst at Canalys. “Once they see how important and revolutionary the technology can be for their business on a larger scale, they tend to migrate to larger additive manufacturing systems and see dramatically improved time to market for their products.”

Companies like Robert Welch, a home goods designer based in the UK, use MakerBot and Stratasys 3D printers to prepare for manufacturing, push the boundaries of their ideas, speed up their production process and provide a clear picture of how their designs will translate into a finished product. MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printers are used for early prototypes. Once the designed prototype is refined, they use a Stratasys Objet-line 3D Printer to print near-final designs that duplicate the real weight, feel and handling of their designs before they are sent to final production. To learn more about Robert Welch and how they use both MakerBot and Stratasys 3D Printers, view this video.

The new sales partnership program is another example of the increased collaboration between MakerBot and Stratasys to provide the best 3D printing solutions in the industry. MakerBot greatly benefits from Stratasys’ 25 years of industry experience and is now working together closely with Stratasys on quality assurance and product development.

About MakerBot

MakerBot, a subsidiary of Stratasys Ltd. (Nasdaq: SSYS), is leading the Next Industrial Revolution by setting the standards in reliable and affordable desktop 3D printing. Founded in 2009, MakerBot sells desktop 3D printers to innovative and industry-leading customers worldwide, including engineers, architects, designers, educators and consumers. MakerBot has one of the largest installed bases and market shares in the desktop 3D printing industry, with more than 90,000 MakerBot Replicator 3D Printers in the world. The robust MakerBot 3D Ecosystem makes 3D printing easy and accessible for everyone. To learn more about MakerBot, visit makerbot.com.