The king of 3D printing, Josef Průša, is making another business outburst a week after the announcement of his investment in Posedla. However, this time the business is purely strategic: the purchase of an 80% stake in the Czech company Trilab, which develops and manufactures industrial 3D printers.
The parties have decided not to comment on the value of the transaction, but according to Forbes estimates it is higher in the tens of millions of crowns. With this step, Prusa Research will expand its scope in 3D printing and at the same time penetrate more into the B2B world.
“Trilab produces quality printers for the corporate sector and has a very good reputation in this area. Our printers are historically intended mainly for domestic users, they are open-source and this approach may be limiting in the area of large industry, “comments Josef Průša, who makes no secret of the fact that the industrial area can be a catalyst for further growth.
Trilab 3D printers work on the principle of so-called delta kinematics, where the movement of the print head is controlled by three arms arranged in the shape of a triangle. The company’s customers, whose annual sales are in the tens of millions of crowns, include companies associated with the automotive industry, but also glassmakers from Lasvit. They use 3D printers to produce prototypes of the technical parts of their luminaires.
“At the beginning of this year, we realized that if we want to expand our operations to other markets and thus accelerate the pace of growth, we need a strategic partner,” says Trilabu co-founder and CEO Michal Boháč. After negotiations with foreign companies, the connection with a local partner made the most sense for them.
The reason is, among other things, the print cartridges, which Průša et al. produced under their own brand Prusament. “They fit our printers perfectly and offer great development opportunities in the future. Even now, when we show customers prints from Prusament PC Blend created on our printers, they are excited, ”adds Vojtěch Tambor, co-founder and technical director of Trilab.
In any case, Trilab will not completely admit to Prusa Research and its brand will only receive a supplement. So now Trilab – A Prusa Research Company, where Boháč and Tambor will keep their roles at the same time.
Josef Průša, the seventy-richest Czech, which bought the domestic company Futur3D in 2018, told Forbes that after the current acquisition, it no longer sees any other opportunities in the field of 3D printing on the Czech market. Likewise, it is not currently actively looking around abroad.
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