Carbon, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based company founded in 2013, announced on Nov. 12 that it has raised $60 million in new funding. The investment round was headlined by current investors, including Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake, and sportswear giant adidas.
This funding round, one of the largest recent investments in the additive manufacturing sector, is designed to scale Carbon’s capacity and help the company achieve cash-flow positive operations.
The company is leveraging its proprietary Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) technology to cement its leadership position in the advanced manufacturing sector. Carbon differentiates itself by offering a platform – comprising materials science, hardware, and software – that enables the large-scale production of high-performance polymer components, a goal that previously eluded the 3D printing industry.
Additive Manufacturing Explained
Additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing, is a process where material is added layer by layer to create a three-dimensional object, in contrast to traditional subtractive manufacturing (like machining or cutting), which removes material. Carbon’s Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) process uses light and oxygen to rapidly grow parts from a pool of liquid resin, allowing for complex geometries and customizable lattices unattainable with conventional methods.
Relevance for the Sporting Goods Industry
Carbon’s technology has a profound and immediate impact on the sporting goods industry, particularly in customizing products and enhancing performance and protection:
Footwear: Since partnering with Adidas in 2017, Carbon has scaled its footwear production to millions of components. The partnership recently expanded to include the Climacool franchise, a series of fully 3D-printed footwear engineered for breathability and comfort.
Sports Protection: In safety equipment, football helmets produced with Carbon’s technology have consistently ranked number one in the NFL/NFLPA helmet laboratory testing for the past six consecutive years. As a result, Riddell is significantly scaling its offering of Carbon’s 3D-printed pads across multiple helmet lines, extending its use to college and high school levels. Other major protective brands like CCM, Schutt, and VICIS also utilize Carbon’s technology.
Cycling: Top-tier brands, including Fizik, Selle Italia, and Trek, have produced hundreds of thousands of high-performance bike saddles. For instance, in the 2025 Tour de France, six of the top ten riders used saddles produced with Carbon technology.
The investment confirms confidence in Carbon’s business model to deliver high-performance, customized products that were previously impossible to manufacture, accelerating innovation across the entire sporting goods supply chain.
