Aachen — S‑UBG AG, leading Aachen-based invest­ment company for medium-sized busi­nesses, is inves­t­ing in the Herzo­­gen­rath-based tech­no­logy company LUNOVU GmbH. The company was foun­ded in 2013 in the envi­ron­ment of the Aachen Fraun­ho­fer Insti­tute for Laser Tech­no­logy (ILT) and specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment and marke­ting of intel­li­gent and networked machi­nes for the laser metal depo­si­tion (LMD) process — a disrup­tive tech­no­logy in the field of 3D metal prin­ting. By incre­asing its equity, LUNOVU intends to take advan­tage of the enorm­ous growth oppor­tu­ni­ties arising from the demand for addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring in the market, which has been incre­asing for years. The fore­cast market deve­lo­p­ment for indi­vi­dua­li­zed machi­nes in 3D metal prin­ting will average 24 percent through 2024, accor­ding to the consul­ting firm Wohlers.

Key tech­no­logy for indus­trial production
LUNOVU uses an end-to-end digi­tal process chain for the manu­fac­ture, repair and coating of compon­ents using LMD proces­ses. The intel­li­gent linking of measu­re­ment tech­no­logy and data prepa­ra­tion enables direct measu­re­ment of unknown compo­nent geome­tries as well as auto­ma­tic path plan­ning and direct LMD machi­ning. The soft­ware inte­gra­ted for this purpose saves users signi­fi­cant pre-proces­­sing effort. This gives LUNOVU a strong unique selling point in the rele­vant market envi­ron­ment. The company is also able to inte­grate sensor tech­no­logy into LMD systems accor­ding to custo­mer requi­re­ments, ther­eby offe­ring process-relia­­ble and repro­du­ci­ble LMD process control. The company has alre­ady successfully instal­led nume­rous laser machine systems at its custo­mers — in medium-sized indus­try, multi­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and rese­arch institutions.

Tech­no­lo­gi­cal and stra­te­gic goals for further growth
In order to conti­nue to consis­t­ently market LMD tech­no­logy, LUNOVU is stri­ving to stan­dar­dize the machi­nes with confi­gura­ble design in control tech­no­logy, elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring and mecha­nics. For the assem­bly of the machi­nes, larger opera­ting areas and corre­spon­ding equip­ment will be requi­red in the future, so that a move is alre­ady plan­ned for the coming fiscal year. In addi­tion to a labo­ra­tory for better and faster metall­ur­gi­cal evalua­tion of samples, the new site will also have a demons­tra­tion field that will also serve as a show­room for the latest systems developed.

Expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team
“LUNOVU clearly stands out from the compe­ti­tion thanks to its tech­no­lo­gi­cal edge and unique selling propo­si­ti­ons in rele­vant tech­no­logy areas such as the digi­tal process chain, as well as a strong custo­mer focus,” says Harald Heide­mann, CEO of the S‑UBG Group. “In addi­tion, the manage­ment team has exten­sive expe­ri­ence and exper­tise in laser tech­no­logy, auto­ma­tion and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. The ongo­ing digi­ta­liza­tion makes addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring a strong growth market. Based on the posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment to date and the company’s conso­li­da­ted posi­tion, we assume that LUNOVU will be able to rapidly seize its growth oppor­tu­ni­ties and win many major projects with a stron­ger equity base.”

The team around the three mana­ging part­ners Dr. Oliver Stef­fens, Dipl.-Ing. Lars Boeske and Dr. Rainer Beccard has grown to 16 employees since the company was foun­ded. “Due to the incre­asing spread of LMD tech­no­logy, as well as our core compe­ten­cies and the process know­ledge we have built up, we have been able to achieve very strong growth in the area of LMD machine manu­fac­tu­ring in recent years,” says Stef­fens. “With the predic­ted market deve­lo­p­ment and our acqui­red tech­no­lo­gi­cal lead, we will focus even more on this busi­ness area in the future.”

About the S‑UBG Group
The S‑UBG Group, Aachen, has been the leading part­ner in the provi­sion of equity capi­tal for estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies (S‑UBG AG) and young, tech­­no­­logy-orien­­ted start-ups (Tech­Vi­sion Fonds I) in the econo­mic regi­ons of Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach for over 30 years. S‑UBG AG invests in growth sectors; high quality of corpo­rate manage­ment is a key invest­ment criter­ion for the invest­ment company.

2020, Tech­Vi­sion Fonds I für die Region Aachen, Krefeld & Mönchen­glad­bach GmbH & Co. KG was laun­ched toge­ther with NRW.BANK, the savings banks of Aachen, Krefeld and Düren, Kreis­spar­kasse Heins­berg, Stadt­spar­kasse Mönchen­glad­bach, Noma­in­vest, DSA Invest GmbH, inves­tors from the Dr. Babor Group and other private inves­tors. It provi­des around 40 million euros in seed capi­tal for the start-up scene in the region. Tech­Vi­sion Fonds I emer­ged from Seed Fonds III for the Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach region. As an exten­sion of Seed Fund III, Tech­Vi­sion Fund I now seeks to parti­ci­pate in subse­quent finan­cing rounds (Series A/B) of exis­ting port­fo­lio compa­nies in addi­tion to seed invest­ments. The S‑UBG Group curr­ently holds stakes in just under 40 compa­nies in the region, giving it a leading posi­tion in the Spar­­kas­­sen-Finan­z­­gruppe. Further infor­ma­tion: www.s‑ubg.de; https://techvision-fonds.de/