Apium Additive Technologies has commenced insolvency proceedings as it searches for new investment.
The company's current investor is unable to provide the funds that will allow the company to qualify its Apium P400 extrusion 3D printer for the medical market, the sector Apium is hoping to pursue moving forward.
Founded in 2016, Apium Additive Technologies currently employs 15 people and recently generated annual sales of around 1 million EUR. Describing itself as a manufacturer of machine tools, Apium boasts patented technology for the processing of high-performance thermoplastics into high-strength components via 3D printing. This technology, Apium says, can help medical professionals provide faster treatment success thanks to the manufacture of customised implant solutions.
Many customers are said to already be successfully using Apium 3D printers to produce customised implant solutions according to medical specifications and on the basis of CT/MRI data. Medical research institutions also use Apium products to develop and test materials and components prior to their later application in every day clinical practice.
"We already successfully serve the industrial and medical markets worldwide with our existing 3D printers and would like to focus more on the medical sector, said Apium Managing Director Lars Pfotzer. "To this end, we want to qualify our latest product platform, the industrial 3D printer Apium P400, which we developed to market standard in recent years, for the medical market. We need fresh capital to enable us to take this step. This will allow us to reap the rewards of our development work over the past few months. However, our current investor is unable to provide any additional funds for this. We have therefore decided to restructure our young company in insolvency proceedings and resume the search for investors."
"I see great potential for Apium if we can find an investor to support the young company," says the preliminary insolvency administrator Holger Blümle from the Karlsruhe office of Germany-wide law firm Schultze & Braun, appointed by Karlsruhe Local Court. "As a result of the high costs of development work, Apium is unable to fully exploit its potential in market development and the further improvement of its products under the current ownership structure. The ongoing preliminary insolvency proceedings offer investors the opportunity to take over the company free from inherited burdens and to lead it into the future.
"We aim at entering into negotiations with potential investors as soon as possible so that we can quickly release Apium from the proceedings."
Blümle is said to have already received initial expressions of interest.