THE FACTORY JUST MOVED TO THE DESKTOP

WIKIFACTORY LAUNCHES NEW VIRTUAL COLLABORATION PLATFORM FOR INDIVIDUALS AND ENTERPRISE TO MAKE PHYSICAL PRODUCTS, EVEN FASTER, FOR EVERYONE EVERYWHERE

• More than USD 4.5 million raised in seed funding from impact investors across Europe and the US. 
• Wikifactory sets its sights on building the Internet of Production. 
• Since May 2019, 70,000 product developers in 190 countries are using Wikifactory to make thousands of products, including essential PPE and ventilators during the pandemic. 

Madrid, December 9, 2020 – Today, Wikifactory, the social platform and online collaboration system for physical product development, has announced a total upgrade that will enable everyone, anywhere the ability to make anything, with nothing but a laptop and an internet connection. 

Wikifactory’s all new Collaborative CAD Tool with in-built chat will transform the way products are made. Enabling designers, engineers, manufacturers and enterprise to collaborate remotely on virtually any CAD model, from concept through to finished prototype, Wikifactory’s multi-feature upgrade takes CAD visualisation to the next level, and speed up communications on product specifications from months to minutes.

The new Collaborative CAD Tool allows product developers of all skill levels in virtually any industry to explore, review and discuss 3D models in over thirty file formats in real-time, whether at work, at home, or on-the-go. With a brand-new annotation system, geometry explorer, and advanced visualisation settings for multiple solid views and cross-sections, Wikifactory is making expensive product lifecycle management (PLM) software accessible and affordable to everyone, opening up industry for wider participation.

Wikifactory, which launched its Beta in May 2019, has recently closed its latest USD 3 million funding round, securing more than USD 4.5 million in seed funding to date from impact investors across Europe and the US. With the investment, the company will build a quality-assured manufacturing marketplace to connect three growing networks of Big Industry into one affordable and secure Market Network. Additionally, with mirrored servers in China to open up access to its hardware capital Shenzhen, Wikifactory is available in four languages, and is set to expand to 20 after Series A. 

More than 70,000 product developers, growing at a rate of 20% month on month, from across 190 countries are currently using Wikifactory to build robotics, electric vehicles and drones, agri-tech and sustainable energy appliances, lab equipment and 3D printers, smart furniture and biotech fashion materials as well as medical supplies including vital PPE and ventilators when there were global supply shortages.

“Wide-scale global collaboration to make physical things is happening both for open-source and for proprietary product development,” says Nicolai Peitersen, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Wikifactory. “This isn’t a marginal economic development. The global manufacturing industry output, worth USD 35 trillion, is finally having its web moment. What we’re seeing is a profound and systemic change in the way that digital transformation is impacting the production system. Online collaboration and distributed production is becoming mainstream and this is a much bigger transformation than Industry 4.0. We’re calling it the internet of production.”

For the Wikifactory community, the launch of the new Collaborative CAD Tool makes it even simpler and easier to share progress updates, critical to speeding up the prototyping and production phase.

“Today, as global supply chains are increasingly vulnerable, the need for a viable, alternative online infrastructure to prototype and produce products locally, to a high standard, and sustainably, has never been more relevant and necessary,”  adds Peitersen. “A new distributed model of global innovation for local production not only opens up access to the production industry and removes the barriers to start and scale a product business, leading to new socio-economic impetus, but also incubates a new economic model that demands less shipping, less costly inventories, and which might even change our consumption habits altogether.”

Unlike enterprise product lifecycle management (PLM) tools, Wikifactory’s system is completely web-based, inspired by the best practices of the agile, open-source software development industry. This means the 3D CAD tool, documentation system, version-control drive, social functionalities, blog publishing tool, global marketplace of product developers and digital fabricators are integrated in one seamless online system.

Key features of the new Collaborative CAD Tool: 

Forget about sending 3D models and screenshots via email or cloud storage software. Now anyone can develop their entire product from start to finish in one online workspace.

• Communicate with your team, clients and stakeholders in a direct and transparent way.
• Centralise decision making, reducing the number of tools you need to access and share information.
• Access 3D models quickly from your browser. No add-ons required.
• Reduce risks and improve communication in error prone processes such as prototyping and manufacturing.
• Invite colleagues with no previous 3D modelling experience to play with a product assembly.
• Develop and share projects with access to industry-standard tools at internet prices.

Wikifactory’s agile, cloud-based, light-weight PLM software is available for free for open-source innovation and just €7 per month for proprietary, or closed, innovation for confidential projects. The feature upgrade is currently available in Beta for free.

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For press inquiries, please contact:

Wikifactory: 

Sonia Afzal
Head of Communications, Wikifactory
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7950 467 773
s_afzal (wechat)

33Seconds:
Kelly Scanlon
Senior Account Executive 
[email protected]

About Wikifactory

Inspired by the workflows of agile and open source software development, Wikifactory is the world’s first social platform and online collaboration system to design, prototype and produce real things in virtual teams. Its Collaborative CAD Tool is compatible with over 30 file formats. Its documentation system, version control drive, and feedback system, as well as its sophisticated web publishing tool to post blogs and engage in expert debates in forums, make the platform an all-in-one space for individuals and an open innovation hub for enterprise. Adopted by thousands of hardware start-ups and communities making thousands of valuable products that solve real-world problems, Wikifactory is building the Internet of Production. A single infrastructure to connect every element of global supply chain in one seamless online system. Wikifactory launched its Beta in May 2019 and was founded by Tom Salfield, Christina Rebel, Maximilian Kampik and Nicolai Pietersen. Headquartered in Denmark, with an international team spread across Madrid, Shenzhen and London, Wikifactory is where ideas get made.

wikifactory.com

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