Announcing Backflip

The World is 3D

Today, we're excited to announce the launch of Backflip. Our mission is to dramatically accelerate the pace of hardware innovation and development — for one reason — we want to live in the future. The pace of development today is limited by the tools we have — tools that were designed last century — tools that can now be turbocharged with the advent of AI.

Engineers all over the world pour their hearts and souls into creating the future. They can see it in their mind, but getting their ideas into the world is slow. What if we could create at the speed of imagination? What if the tools we used were AI-powered, and could learn over time? What if your simulations were so close to reality that you could actually design in the virtual world, and gather most of the insights you get from real world testing? That is the future we want to live in. And that's what we're building at Backflip.

Now imagine every person on earth had that power. This is how we touch the stars.

Today we're releasing our first foundation model — it's an on-ramp to 3D design. We've enabled a series of inputs — from text, to drawing, to snapping a photo with your phone — that can be converted into a 3D model you can 3D print today, and use in the real world. It's so easy, a child can do it.

The next release will add precision and control for experienced engineers and designers. It's the start of the professional tool we always wanted. Powerful. Easy to use. And precise.

The text to image to 3D process we used to design this mug in Backflip

The Backflip Team

Backflip was founded by creators who love to build in the real world. We weld, grind, CNC machine, hand-build bicycle frames, build solar cars, race cars, lay up carbon fiber, repair Swiss watches, and build products like people's lives depend on it. And yes, we love to code.

This is not our first rodeo. Prior to Backflip, we invented 3D printed carbon fiber, founded Markforged, and took it public for $2.1B. We're incredibly proud of what we built there. Markforged parts are used in mission critical applications — on the International Space Station, in fighter jets, medical applications, and robotics. In addition to inventing a new manufacturing process, we developed a powerful and easy–to–use cloud CAD platform to design aerospace grade parts in carbon fiber and various metals. This software is used by over 50,000 designers and engineers — from high school robotics teams to aerospace engineers at NASA. At Backflip, we've hand picked a talented set of AI researchers from MIT and Caltech to transform how humans design.

Parts created with Markforged technology are used in demanding environments around the world.

Funding

We are thrilled to announce the closing of $30M led by NEA and Andreessen Horowitz. Our investors have a deep history backing hard tech companies and AI. We're excited to have them on this journey. We've also been incredibly lucky to get a very special set of angel investors, from Kevin Scott (huge Markforged user, and builder of physical things), Rich Miner (Android founder and AI futurist), and Ashish Vaswani (Attention is All You Need). Rounding out the team are two of my favorite people (badass lawyers) from Quinn Emanuel — Harvey Wolkoff and Aliki Sofis.

Come Build With Us!

The biggest challenges we face are in the real world. How will we recapture all this carbon at scale? How do we build large, efficient rockets to make humanity a multi-planetary species? How long until we have efficient fusion reactors that let us harness the greatest energy source in the galaxy? We are building a fundamentally new design tool that will enable a quantum leap in engineering velocity, and will move us into the future.

We are hiring the best and brightest. We have ambitious goals, and this is going to be hard. But you will always have a good answer to the question, "what did you get done this week." And when you look back at your life's work and what you built, you will know you've made a difference in the world.