Spark Capital Joins Lux, Kleiner Perkins, DCVC, and Future Shape;
Manufacturing Executive Victoria Holt and Spark Partner Santo Politi
Join Lumafield Board of Directors
September 12, 2022 — IMTS Chicago, East Hall, Floor 3, Booth #135828 — Lumafield, a pioneering developer of accessible X-ray CT technology, today announced it has closed a $35M Series B funding round from new and existing investors, achieved a major new AI-driven performance breakthrough, and appointed two prominent executives to its board of directors.
The company has raised a total of $67.5M to date, including a combined $32.5M in its Seed and Series A funding rounds. Spark Capital led the Series B round, which also included participation from existing investors Lux Capital, Kleiner Perkins, DCVC, and Future Shape.
Lumafield also announced the appointment of Victoria Holt and Santo Politi to the company's Board of Directors. Ms. Holt was previously CEO of Protolabs and is a member of the boards of directors of Waste Management, A.O. Smith, and Piper Sandler. Mr. Politi is Founder and General Partner of Spark Capital, where his investments have included Oculus, Twitter, Wayfair, and Plaid.
Faster, AI-driven scans bring CT to the factory floor
When Lumafield emerged from stealth in April 2022, it offered the world’s first accessible industrial X-ray CT platform. Lumafield’s Neptune industrial CT scanner is an order of magnitude less expensive than legacy systems, and it brought this powerful technology to engineering teams that had never been able to afford industrial CT before.
Now Lumafield has made its Neptune scanner more than 300X faster, allowing it to scale from one-off scans in product development labs all the way to serial inspection in high-volume manufacturing operations.
Behind the speed increase is a significant development in artificial intelligence. CT scanners work by capturing a series of two-dimensional X-ray images from different angles, then reconstructing them into a 3D model using 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. New improvements in Lumafield’s software also make it possible to skip certain steps in the reconstruction process before performing automated analysis, which cuts processing time.
As a result, scans that previously took several hours can now run in a minute or less, finally making industrial CT a practical technology for quality assurance on factory floors. Combined with factory automation systems, Lumafield’s scanner and software can inspect products at high volume, automatically flagging problems such as dimensional inaccuracies and the presence of pores and cracks.
“Industrial CT has been out of reach for most production lines—until now,” said 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.”
A demo of Lumafield’s rapid scanning technology is available this week at IMTS in Chicago. Visit Lumafield in the East Hall, Floor 3 at booth #135828 to experience the Neptune scanner and Voyager analysis software firsthand.
Lumafield is hiring for a wide variety of roles; to see current job openings, visit careers.lumafield.com.
Quotes
"The manufacturing world is changing dramatically,” said 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 promise 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,” said 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 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.”
"Lumafield has been fortunate to have some of the world's leading investors back our vision of ‘CT ubiquity.’ Thanks to their support, we’ve been able to help engineers change the way they work on everything from cosmetics packaging to bike parts," said Eduardo Torrealba, Co-Founder and CEO of Lumafield. "We’re honored by this vote of confidence from Santo and Victoria, as well as our Seed, Series A, and Series B investors. We’re excited to move into our next phase of supercharged growth.”
About Lumafield
Lumafield is a startup based in Cambridge, Mass., that has developed the world's first accessible X-Ray CT scanner for engineers. Lumafield’s easy-to-use scanner and cloud-based analysis software give engineers the ability to see their work clearly, inside and out. Lumafield’s industrial CT platform starts at less than $3,000 per month and scales from product development labs to high-volume manufacturing operations.
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Lumafield is a trademark of Lumafield, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks previously cited are hereby recognized and acknowledged.
