Techstars is considered one of the most famous accelerators in the world. It is a program that takes a group of young companies for several months, provides money, mentors, and access to investors, and in return receives an equity stake in the project. The summer 2015 Techstars Boston cohort included twelve teams. Kwambio was one of them, and along with it, a second Ukrainian team, GV Machines, whose founder is Egor Anchishkin, entered the program. For Odesa, where the company started, this was a notable step: before that, Ukrainian projects rarely made it into such programs.
Kwambio was building a platform for 3D files. The user selects a model, customizes it, and sends it for printing, with the file streamed to the printer without downloading. At launch, the catalog had about a thousand items. To complete the scenario, the team made its own printer, the Unique One. It prints at a speed of 300 mm per second, has a build area of 300 by 300 by 250 mm, supports auto-calibration, and uses "smart" cartridges. The first pre-orders for it came after the 3D Printshow in New York. In April 2015, the prototype was shown at a startup ranking, and the goal was to keep the price below one thousand dollars. This was a plastic consumer printer, and this model should not be confused with the ceramic Ceramo One, which appeared at the company later.
Team and Money
The company was led by Vlad Usov, and the technical side was headed by co-founder Dmitry Krivoshey. He was the CTO, responsible for product development and engineering solutions. The sum of $650,000, according to, consisted of investments from Techstars itself and other sources. Part of the money did come from business angels, but not all. Moreover, at the time of publication, the program was just beginning, so it was too early to talk about results.
Krivoshey himself, in an interview with the publication, linked big plans to the accelerator: "We believe that the Techstars program will take Kwambio to the next level." A year later, the team changed its model and moved from home printers to ceramics, while in the summer of 2015 it was about plastic and consumer machines.
The Path from Books to Printers
Usov did not come to 3D printing immediately. In 2010, he bought his first iPad, and the idea of interactive books became the foundation of his next venture. In 2011, the publishing house Gutenbergz was founded in Odesa. Its first work, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" for iPad, was released in the App Store on December 2, 2012, a year later than planned. The launch cost $25,000. In spring 2013, as reported, the book reached 23,000 downloads, with about 70 percent of sales coming from the US. The team then consisted of seven people. In the same year, 2013, Usov first saw a 3D printer at an exhibition in New York, and that encounter determined his further route.
Kwambio appeared in October 2014. In the fall of the same year, the company received $500,000 from an Odesa company whose name was not disclosed. In 2015, the team took fourth place in the 2014 startup ranking prepared by BVU and iForum. That was when the project became noticeable outside Ukraine, and two months later the opportunity to go to Boston arose.
What Happened Next
In August 2015, Kwambio launched the platform in full. In September 2016, a ceramic 3D printing factory was opened in Odesa, where they planned to produce up to 1,000 items per month. In October 2017, the company raised another $500,000 from Empire State Capital Partners and Impulse VC. At the end of 2017, the Ceramo One appeared: price $25,000, precision 20 microns, speed 160 mm per second. It was shown at CES 2018, which took place from January 9 to 12.
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