Manuevo BV, the Eindhoven-based team that acquired the European assets of Shapeways BV, has now obtained ownership of the Shapeways brand.
It means Manuevo – a subsidiary of WVS International Inc. – will continue operating using the Shapeways name less than five months after the company launched in the wake of Shapeways' bankruptcy.
Shapeways was initially launched in 2008 as a 3D printing marketplace and service provider, expanding from the Netherlands into the USA and eventually listing on the public stock exchange. In July, failings on the US side of the business forced the company to file for bankruptcy, leaving its profitable European business in the lurch. Original co-founders Marleen Vogelaar and Robert Schouwenburg stepped in alongside Eindhoven Plant Manager Jules Witte to acquire the European assets out of Dutch bankruptcy, setting up a phoenix company under the temporary ‘Manuevo’ brand. They have since sought to acquire ‘all available assets’ from the American trustees handling the bankruptcy of Shapeways, in addition to the assets also acquired in the Netherlands.
Vogelaar, Schouwenburg and Witte now make up part of the management team that owns the Shapeways name, website and original Eindhoven production facility. The company says it will continue to offer a wide range of 3D printing technologies, materials and post-processing options but, for the time being, will not restore the company’s marketplace and shops offerings due to a loss of data during the bankruptcy. Shapeways has also confirmed that, though the new management team bought all the available intellectual property owned by the defunct company, this did not include user IP such as model data, since the trustees were unable to sell user-owned IP to another owner. Therefore, all user IP data has been lost.
To this end, Shapeways says all local devices were wiped in a certified process undertaken by a third-party appointed by the trustee in the Netherlands, removing all customer IP. Shapeways accounts and shops that existed prior to the bankruptcy are no longer active, though the new management is working to bring back e-commerce integrations with Shopify and Etsy, and users who were owed money by the previous Shapeways entity can make a claim through the American trustee (details at the foot of this article). The OTTO and MFG parts of the Shapeways business were sold before the bankruptcy and therefore won’t be offered by the new entity, while although the new management is hoping to bring back the marketplace at some point in the future, they anticipate it will 'take some time'. Finally, Shapeways has confirmed the US-based production facilities and physical assets have been sold to another party and are not part of the Manuevo BV’s management team’s acquisition.
“When I helped to launch Shapeways in 2008, it was at the forefront of democratising access to digital manufacturing,” Vogelaar, the new Shapeways CEO, said. “The new management team believes there is a ‘next chapter’ to be written in the Shapeways story, one that includes learning from the past and building a pragmatic, financially sustainable and operationally stable company that continues to provide exceptional service to our users.”
New COO Witte added: “Our belief in Shapeways has driven us to continue this journey. The acquisition of the Shapeways brand marks a significant milestone on that journey, but doesn’t signal the end. In fact, we are excited by the opportunities that lie ahead for Shapeways, our customers and their customers. We have a long way to go, but retain our core ability to produce high-quality parts to meet the needs of our varied customer base.”
The complete management team is as follows:
- Marleen Vogelaar | CEO | Co-founded Shapeways in 2007, serving as COO & CFO before leaving in 2014
- Robert Schouwenburg | CTO | Co-founded Shapeways in 2007, serving as CTO before leaving in 2012.
- Jules Witte | COO | Joined Shapeways in 2012, serving most recently as Plant Manager of the company’s Eindhoven facility.
- Job van de Laar | Plant Manager | Joined Shapeways in 2019, serving as Operations Manager.
- Tiago São José | Head of Engineering | Joined Shapeways in 2012, serving most recently as Engineering Manager (Platform & IT)
Analysis
Though Manuevo successfully acquired the physical assets of Shapeways’ European arm of the business in August and has been operational ever since, obtaining the Shapeways brand is a significant feat for the new management team.
With all five of that leadership team having either founded the original company or spent several years working for it, they all carry the Shapeways culture, understand the company’s status, and believe in its potential. They now also have its name.
And it’s not just any name. Shapeways’ bankruptcy didn’t just mean the loss of an AM marketplace, one less service provider, and one more tombstone in the additive graveyard, it was the demise of one of the industry’s strongest and most recognisable brands. That had reverberations beyond the AM market, and would make the success of a phoenix company that bit harder to come by.
The acquisition of the branding and the website, along with the original Eindhoven production facility, represents the restoration of the Shapeways identity. And identity was perhaps more important to this business than any other in the AM industry. Members of the Shapeways community were called ‘Shapies’, and those who went on to work elsewhere never did shift their association with what was a bona fide industry pioneer.
In speaking to TCT earlier this year, founder and new CEO Vogelaar wasn’t shy in stating that Shapeways ‘lost its soul so much’ in the decade prior to its bankruptcy, with Schouwenburg adding that its strategy was ‘drifting and – frankly – all over the place.’ Though the pair of them had departed Shapeways more than ten years ago, what it meant to be a ‘Shapie’ never left them, and in the last four months they have worked hard to revive a business that meant so much to so many.
As Vogelaar went on to tell TCT's Deep Dives Newsletter in September: “The core of [Shapeways’] soul was still healthy and alive in the Netherlands. That team ran a good, profitable business with a true heart for 3D printing and providing great service to its clients. Together as a team, saving that team, providing continuity for its clients and keeping that core alive is dear to our hearts. Letting all of that go to waste would have been such a shame. There are more stories to be told for our team, [as well as] existing and future clients.”
Today is the start of those stories.
If the old Shapeways ownership entity owes you money — for instance store credit as a vendor or shopowner — you can contact the American Trustee with your claim:
Alfred T. Giuliano Giuliano
Miller & Co., LLC
2301 E. Evesham Road Pavillion 800,
Suite 210,
Voorhees,
NJ 08043
