Local Startup Semifinalist for $1M Prize
July 20, 2017
Local startup Skuld, LLC announced is officially a semifinalist in the 43North startup competition. The Tipp City startup are in the running for a portion of $5 million in startup funding to be awarded. The competition, in its fourth year, is part of the state of New York’s Buffalo Billions economic development effort focused on growing the economy of Buffalo.
In 2015, there were 11,350 entries which took over three thousand hours to review. After changing to a stringent demanding data driven entry process, this year there were over five hundred entries and 134 companies advanced to the semifinals. Skuld was the only semifinalist from Ohio. More than a quarter of the semifinalists were from New York. 23 were from California and 9 were from Massachusetts.
Skuld, LLC is focused on disrupting the metal casting industry. They are the only company in the United States offering near net shape steel lost foam castings and are the only known company in the world offering this technology in stainless and low carbon steels. Skuld also offers thin walled ductile iron going down as thin as 0.070” which gives it the ability to use castings to replace stampings.
Their most innovative process is their Additive Manufacturing Evaporative Casting process. In this process they use 3D printing to replace expensive tooling by 3D printing a plastic form which is then vaporized during the casting process to leave behind an exact replica. They are presenting more technical details on this process at the upcoming MS&T Conference this October in Pittsburgh.
Mark DeBruin, chief technical officer, explained, “Current metal 3D printing technology has limited alloys and often unpredictable properties because you are essentially microwelding together metal powder. Our process allows nearly any metal alloy to be cast and gives standard properties. Yet, it still permits you to eliminate tooling and go from computer drawing directly to obtaining a part.”
Later in July, Skuld will have twenty-five minutes to pitch their business plan to representatives of the startup competition in hopes of advancing to the October finals. The top prize winner will obtain $1 million in startup capital while second place gets $600K and third through eighth places receive $500K. All eight top winners will also continue to compete for another $300,000 in follow-on financing.
We will continue to follow Skuld on their journey in the 43North competition!
