CreoPop 3D pen with cool inks raised US$185K in crowdfunding

It is so safe that even your children can use it.

3D printing pens have been making waves in the market and a Singapore-based startup is keeping up with the race.

Meet CreoPop which bills itself as the world’s first 3D pen with cool ink.

According to co-founder Andreas Birnik, 42, CreoPop has no hot parts, no melting plastic and no unpleasant smell. Instead, it uses photopolymers that are solidified using UV light to let users create amazing 3D designs. Since no heating is required, Andreas added that CreoPop is safe in a home environment with children and pets around.

“In comparison, other 3D pens typically rely on heating ABS and PLA plastic to temperatures of around 250 degrees Celsius / 480 degrees Fahrenheit. This is clearly a safety risk for users and Engadget has previously referred to such pens as “sort of like a hot glue gun that melts plastic.”

“Based on proprietary IP and in-house R&D, CreoPop uses the world’s first photopolymer paste with controllable viscosity. The technology enables the inclusion of various nano-additives to change the properties of the different CreoPop inks.There is ongoing R&D to create inks that are elastic, magnetic, aromatic, conductive, glittering and body paint inks,” Andreas explained.

According to Andreas, CreoPop uses light sensitive ink that is cured by ultraviolet light from diodes surrounding the nozzle. Within the additive manufacturing / 3D printing industry this process is known as stereolithography and the light-sensitive ink is called photopolymers. While this has previously been used in industrial 3D printing applications, CreoPop claims that it is the first time stereolithography is used for a portable consumer device.

Andreas, a Swedish, teamed up with Russian Dmitry Starodubstev, 30 to work on inventing the world’s first photopolymer paste where the viscosity can be controlled. The CreoPop 3D pen is the first they came up with. They believe that photopolymer has several advantages including the ability to easily add a variety of nano-additives to modify the properties of the ink.

“The most innovative feature of CreoPop is the large selection of cool inks available including different colors, elastic ink, magnetic ink, glow-in-the-dark ink, temperature sensitive ink and body paint ink,” said Andreas.

The founders hope that their inks will make a major impact on the entire 3D printing industry

The funding

This startup has now 500,000USD total funding at hand. Some of which includes the founders contribution as an initial funding before securing an investment from HAX Asia, a Singapore based hardware accelerator, MDA’s iJam programme and have raised 185,000USD during the INDIEGOGO campaign.

“We are currently in advanced stage discussions with several investors about further funding. And following our crowdfunding campaign, we will begin to take pre-orders on www.creopop.com. We have also received requests from 80 distributors in 30 countries about selling CreoPop so we will initiate discussions with them,” Andreas added.

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COMPANY PROFILE

Name of the Company: CreoPop
Founders: Andreas Birnik & Dmitry Starodubtsev
Website: https://www.creopop.com/
Total Funding at hand: USD 500,000
Source of Funding: Internal funding, HAX Asia, iJam, crowdfunding campaign
Major Investors: HAX Asia
Start of Operation: R&D in 2013 with company incorporated in April 2014

For startups wanting to be featured, send your message to Lee Anne Babierra at [email protected]