3D printer co Solido lays off entire workforce

The move comes a few months after Fortissimo Capital led an investment round in the company.

The dream of home 3D printer company Solido Ltd. may have ended. Sources inform ''Globes'' that the company has laid off its entire staff of 30 employees and entered receivership.

Solido was founded in 2000 and is based in Rosh Ha'Ayin. The company developed a 3D desktop printer, which could create a complete product from a technical drawing using product design software and plastics.

Rehovot-based Objet Inc., but it targets the enterprise market, whereas Solido targeted the household market. Solido aimed to become the leader in the market, which Gartner Group predicted would grow 100-fold between 2006 and 2011 as printer prices plummeted.

Solido's condition appeared much more optimistic last summer. Fortissimo Capital led a financing round in the company as a way of returning to the printer market, after it sold Nur Macroprinters to Hewlett Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ) for $117.5 million in 2007. Fortissimo also chalked up a success with the successful IPO of portfolio company Sodastream International Ltd. (Nasdaq: SODA).

Fortissimo led a $8.5 million financing round in Solido in August 2010, and appointed a new CEO, Yuval Rachmilevich, who previously ran Olive Software Ltd. and Riverhead Networks Ltd, which was sold to Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) for $40 million in 2004.

Sources trodl "Globes" that Fortissimo stopped its investment after transferring just part of the money. According to Israel Venture Capital, Solido raised $11 million since its inception. Sources close to the company said today that management and investors had concluded that heavy investment would be needed to develop the technology and market, and to turn the company into a market leader. The sources added that the market "was amazing with great potential", but that huge resources were needed to be the leader in it.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 13, 2011

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011

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