SOLS, a 3-D Printing Start-Up, Raises $6.4 Million

Though SOLS Systems has begun to make a name for itself in the business of 3-D-printed orthotics, the start-up has bigger ambitions.

Now, the eight-month-old company will get a big boost with the help of several venture capital firms.

SOLS plans to announce on Tuesday that it has raised $6.4 million in a Series A round of financing. The investment was led by an existing investor, Lux Capital, and a new one, Founders Fund. A number of other existing investors, including RRE and Rothenberg Ventures, also participated.

The investment in SOLS reflects, in part, the continued excitement over 3-D printing, an industry that has already witnessed a $403 million takeover. Founded by Kegan Schouwenburg and Joel Wishkovsky, the company has initially focused on producing custom orthotics, using specialized software to transform images or video into a model of a foot.

So far, SOLS has signed up 50 podiatrists to test out the company’s technology.

Ms. Schouwenburg, a former director of industrial design at the 3-D printing marketplace Shapeways, said the inspiration for the new company was to try new ways of using the manufacturing technology.

“We basically saw something that had no innovation,” she said.

Ms. Schouwenburg said in an interview that Lux, which had participated in the start-up’s $1.75 million seed round in December, approached again a little over a month ago and proposed investing additional money. To help anchor the round, the start-up sought out Founders Fund, partially because of the varied kinds of portfolio companies that the venture capital firm has backed.

The round closed last week.

With the cash, the company has enough financial breathing room to hire more employees, especially in nonengineering roles like product managers. The goal is to expand the company’s team to 20 members by June.

Ultimately, however, SOLS intends to move beyond orthotics into other kinds of products, splitting into a medical brand and a consumer brand.

“The next step from that is to scale that,” Ms. Schouwenburg said. “Everyone everywhere should have access to this technology.”