Israeli 3D printing startup CASTOR has raised strategic funding from Japanese corporation Asahi Kasei (TOKYO:3407). This investment is intended to enhance the integration of Asahi Kasei’s Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) services for plastic products and CASTOR’s proprietary 3D printing software.

CASTOR’s software utilizes a proprietary algorithm to automatically select 3D printable parts from CAD drawings in a bill of materials (BOM). It suggests shape modifications and estimates manufacturing lead times, costs, and CO2 emissions, optimizing customers’ manufacturing processes.

Asahi Kasei’s strategic investment in CASTOR signals its entry into the rapidly expanding 3D Printing market. The global 3D printing market, valued at $16.7 billion in 2022, has grown at an average annual growth rate exceeding 20% since 2015, and it expects a CAGR of 23% over the next seven years, reaching $88 billion by 2030.

Asahi Kasei offers assistance to its customers in product design and development, and their specialized CAE technical service primarily caters to the engineering plastics domain. The investment is expected to bear multiple synergies, such as to improve Asahi Kasei’s customer service by accelerating responses to inquiries and providing more advanced automated simulations.

CASTOR’s previous funding round was in 2021, raising $3.5 million seed funding, which brought its total funding to $5.9 million. Asahi Kasei joins other strategic investors and partners in the startup, like Stanley Black & Decker and Xerox. The startup was founded in 2017 by CTO Elad Schiller and CEO Omer Blaier.