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What if it were as easy to generate a usable 3-D design as prompting ChatGPT ? That ’s the commission ofBackflip , a startup found by 3D printing veterans that ’s just scored $ 30 million from Andreessen Horowitz , New Enterprise Associates , and a host of other big name calling in tech .
design physical object often want hours or day of specialized work using calculator - aided design software . Backflip CEO Greg Mark and CTO David Benhaim , both founders of 3D printing process society Markforged , want to twist that into minutes thanks to Backflip ’s new foundational models .
“ AI language model capture how we think , vision model enchant how we see , and Backflip is creating foundation models that catch how we build , ” Benhaim enunciate .
Backflip sound out its models are trained on a large dataset of about 10 million 3D parts , generated in part thanks to AI , that took two yr to build . With this lift , Backflip plans to launch its app and democratize the blueprint process for anyone , from manufacturers to regular citizenry , Mark differentiate TechCrunch . The AI is n’t define to textual matter , either : It can produce designs based on sketches , picture , or other material as well .
“ Now anyone can do it . you may literally text prompts , or draw a vignette , or pull in an image , or snap a exposure with your iPhone — and then print it out . Your estimate are in the man . Kind of half-baked , ” he allege .
One logical concern with radically democratise design is the form of products some people cease up building . The killer of the United Healthcare CEOused a three-D - printed gunman , for model . Mark told TechCrunch that Backflip takes safety seriously and currently has two levels of content safety checkers to dribble out potentially harmful designs from being mother .
Backflip ’s round was co - led by NEA and a16z with participation from angel investors , including Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott , Android beginner Rich Miner , and Ashish Vaswani , a co - author of the “ Attention Is All You Need ” composition that help launch the LLM revolution .
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Backflip has been in stealth since its institution in December 2022 , raising one seeded player daily round whose detail are undisclosed . This large Series A is part of a spacious trend of VC exuberance for improving ( or even replacing ) highly labor - intensive processes with AI , everywhere from coding to constabulary . VCs are in abidding warfare over Anysphere thanks to its AI - powered code editor , Cursor , TechCrunch reported .
For NEA partner Lila Tretikov , Backflip is also part of a thesis around funding startup focused on building and generating three-D worlds and products , anothertrend examine by TechCrunch . Tretikov top NEA ’s investment into World Labs , the startup create by AI groundbreaker Fei - Fei Li that want to generate interactive 3D scenesfrom a single photo .
“ AI , in combining with a lot of other techniques , would be phenomenal to help oneself technologist and designers to ramp up things that we ca n’t even imagine right now , ” she told TechCrunch .
Markforged , the previous company establish by Backflip ’s executives , sell 3-D impression system , including physical 3D printers . Itwent publicin a $ 2.1 billion SPAC in July 2021 afterraising$137 million in capital , per its website . Both Mark and Benhaim left within a year after the SPAC . ( Markforged ’s blood has fallen closely 97 % since its listing , like many SPACs . )
Mark tell that while he ’s “ incredibly proud ” of Markforged , construction hardware is “ way slow ” than focusing strictly on aim software system , as Backflip is doing . “ The real problem with 3D printing , and just proceed world into the future at large , is the intent side , ” Mark say . “ I want to see the future , good ? I require to , like , fly amongst the star . And we ’re not get down there off traditional design packet . ”
