09-16-2014: Stratasys acquired GrabCAD

The transaction was worth approximately $100 million

On September 16, 2014, Stratasys acquired GrabCAD—a popular online platform supporting engineers and designers in the exchange and sharing of 3D models and other technical resources. The value of the acquisition was estimated at around $100 million and was reportedly a cash transaction (according to TechCrunch). Considering that the previous year, Stratasys had acquired MakerBot and its platform Thingiverse, it became the owner of two leading online platforms offering free 3D models.

GrabCAD was founded in Estonia in 2008 by Hardi Meybaum and Indrek Narusk with the idea of creating a community that could share CAD projects. It was not only a file repository but also a social platform allowing user interactions. It consisted of GrabCAD Community and GrabCAD Workbench—an online collaboration tool for working on CAD projects.

As of March 2023, the Community consisted of over 11,640,000 users and over 5,570,000 open source models. The Community also offered a range of challenges with prizes.

In 2014, Stratasys decided to acquire the platform, but to do so, it allegedly had to outbid serious competitors: Autodesk and Adobe. This explains the relatively high price for a five-year-old, specialized tech startup. The acquisition was announced on September 16 and formalized just a week later, on September 23, 2014.

Under Stratasys, GrabCAD naturally evolved towards greater focus on additive manufacturing. While still retaining its core function as an engineering platform, it was expanded with GrabCAD Print. This software is designed to manage the 3D printing process, especially for users of Stratasys 3D printers. It allows for easy preparation of CAD models for 3D printing, parameter optimization, and progress monitoring from within the application.

It was the first software, for example, to enable the transfer of production files directly from a CAD environment to 3D printer software without the need for manual conversion to .STL format. It also featured automatic part layout across multiple 3D printer workbenches when the parts did not fit on the first (or subsequent) workbench.

These functions are standard today, but it’s worth noting that they first appeared in GrabCAD Print.

Source: www.stratasys.com