WEAV3D is enabling lightweighting for the masses through it's patented Rebar for Plastics technology, allowing mass market manufacturing to transform their existing molding capabilities to create cost-effective, high-performance, lightweight structural composites.
High-performance lightweight composites, once reserved for aerospace, racing, and high-performance sports, have failed to penetrate mass-market applications due to high production costs, slow manufacturing speeds, and low scalability. As a result, mass-market manufacturers are constrained to using inexpensive, heavily reinforced metals or plastics. These materials are heavier, bulkier, prone to corrosion, and limit design flexibility, driving inefficiencies across industries. The reliance on these sub-optimal materials compounds problems:
- Increased transportation costs: more energy is consumed, reducing fuel economy and vehicle range, while freight containers under-utilize space due to weight limitations.
- Higher carbon emissions, both operational and embodied, across the supply chain.
- Elevated capital and assembly costs for additional structural reinforcements.
- Significant waste from trim scrap and end-of-life components, burdening landfills.
- Limited adoption of renewable materials due to inferior performance and higher costs.
At WEAV3D®, we revolutionize mass-market manufacturing with cost-effective, high-performance reinforcing materials. Our patented Rebar for Plastics® technology integrates seamlessly into existing high-volume molding or casting processes, reducing component weight by up to 75%, eliminating support structures while reducing total material use as well as increasing strength, performance, and durability—all while keeping costs low. We enable greater use of renewable materials, and a zero-waste production process by upcycling trim scrap and end-of-life components. When applied across a vehicle, WEAV3D reduces curb weight by over 25%, improving fuel economy or EV range by up to 20%, while decreasing reliance on mined minerals. WEAV3D drives efficiency and sustainability for industries like transportation, construction, and consumer goods, delivering both economic and environmental ROI."
WEAV3D's 6-member team brings a powerful blend of innovation and leadership to scale their groundbreaking lightweight materials technology:
- Diverse expertise spanning automotive, industrial machinery, aviation, racing, and biomedical manufacturing, and
- Proven track record of solving complex challenges in high-performance, cost-effective materials for high-volume applications.
Key team strengths:
- Lewis Motion (Founder, CEO)
- MBA from Georgia Tech, B.S. in Management from U.S. Coast Guard Academy
- Extensive leadership experience in U.S. Coast Guard, including successful turnaround and growth initiatives
- Naval aviator with mission command experience
- Christopher Oberste (Founder, Chief Engineer):
- Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Georgia Tech
- Hands-on experience in state-of-the-art composite manufacturing
- Lead inventor on nine issued patents and three patent applications related to WEAV3D technology This gritty, tenacious team combines technical innovation with strategic leadership to drive WEAV3D's growth and market penetration."
"WEAV3D's go-to-market strategy focuses on rapid customer discovery in new markets to achieve high-volume production by end of 2025. The company's technology reduces weight, material use, and carbon emissions while enhancing strength and durability across various applications.
Key Strategy Components:
- Market Focus: Identify top 3-5 applications by January's end, with development projects in each by Q1's close.
- Target Criteria: Partner with innovative companies ($50-500M annual revenue) offering high revenue potential, easy adoption, and short development cycles.
- Strategic Partnerships:
- Packaging and Logistics: Collaborate with industrial container and pallet manufacturers; validate with logistics companies.
- Consumer Goods: Co-develop with sports and outdoor gear brands (e.g., reinforced shoe soles, helmets, pickleball paddles).
- Construction: Partner with property developers for no-code and industrial pavement applications, reducing costs and extending lifespans.
- Unmanned Vehicles: Engage with component suppliers for lightweight, high-performance structural parts.
- Increase Design Access: Expand current finite element analysis (FEA) software design capability, licensing add-on across multiple major industry standard design platforms to enable customers to design with WEAV3D lattice, increasing material product demand.
- Leverage Recent Success: Capitalize on recent national/international awards, early customer traction, and warm introductions to drive partnerships and market entry. This strategy aims to accelerate market penetration by focusing on high-potential applications and leveraging strategic partnerships to drive rapid adoption and revenue growth.
WEAV3D makes money first through development projects, then through annual recurring WEAV3D reinforcing lattice production once a customer locks in the design optimized for their end use.
WEAV3D is currently generating revenue through paid production-intent development projects. As WEAV3D lattices cannot be commoditized, WEAV3D expects 40-60% gross margin on production lattices. Additional revenue will come through FEA licensing.
WEAV3D is launching a $3M Seed II round in early 2025, with $1M already committed by a lead investor and a CVC soft-circled for additional funding and technical diligence. We're seeking ""smart money"" from hard-tech investors who use the J-curve approach, have portfolio companies or contacts who would benefit from WEAV3D technology, share our vision for disrupting massive markets and can directly contribute to our growth acceleration. Investment focus:
- Market Penetration:
- Expand our rapid prototyping capabilities to accelerate customer adoption
- Launch targeted pilot programs in high-potential industries
- Develop comprehensive case studies and demonstration projects
- Attend key industry events and trade shows to showcase our technology
- Team Expansion:
- Hire key personnel in sales, software, engineering, and production to expand capability and unlock new revenue potential
- Bring on industry experts as advisors to guide market-specific strategies
- Invest in employee training and development
- Production Scaling:
- Optimize manufacturing processes for increased efficiency
- Invest in equipment upgrades to enhance production capacity
- Develop partnerships with strategic manufacturing facilities. We will further leverage this investment to unlock an additional $9-12M of non-dilutive funding (such as through debt financing and AR financing) to further accelerate scaling.
With this investment, we project exceeding $10M in annual revenue in 2027, capturing a significant share of the $100B+ lightweight materials market. Our innovative technology, coupled with our experienced team and targeted go-to-market strategy, positions WEAV3D for rapid growth and substantial returns for our investors. Join us in revolutionizing the lightweight materials industry and driving sustainable, high-performance solutions across multiple sectors.
Our pilot (gen 1) WEAV3D® machine is currently at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7. We are currently producing material with this machine for our customers to use in paid development projects, and this fully capable pilot machine is able to produce low rate initial production volumes (Machine Readiness Level (MRL) 8).
We are currently commissioning our commercial (gen 2) machine line, which will be online and capable of full rate, high volume production in early 2025 (TRL 8: achieving full line speed and quality goals in production operation conditions). This new machine has an 85% reduction in embodied energy (energy per kilogram) and 10x (min) to 20x production speed increase (dependent on the number of layers) vs. the pilot machine baseline, and will be able to meet automotive quality high volume material production.
Production parameters can be changed on-the-fly, allowing WEAV3D® production to support multiple product lines during the same run. Production volume is dependent on the size and complexity of the WEAV3D® reinforcement being produced. The commercial (gen 2) machine can produce WEAV3D® reinforcing lattice structures for 500k parts the size of a car door on a single shift, 80% uptime per year. This number increases to millions of units per year for parts the size of a shoe sole, due to the smaller WEAV3D® reinforcing material size and the WEAV3D® machine technology's parallel part production capability. By end-of-year 2025, we will obtain our ISO 9001 certification and begin high volume production, achieving both TRL 9 and MRL 10.
Our pilot (gen 1) WEAV3D® machine is currently at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7. We are currently producing material with this machine for our customers to use in paid development projects, and this fully capable pilot machine is able to produce low rate initial production volumes (Machine Readiness Level (MRL) 8). We are currently commissioning our commercial (gen 2) machine line, which will be online and capable of full rate, high volume production in early 2025 (TRL 8: achieving full line speed and quality goals in production operation conditions). This new machine has an 85% reduction in embodied energy (energy per kilogram) and 10x (min) to 20x production speed increase (dependent on the number of layers) vs. the pilot machine baseline, and will be able to meet automotive quality high volume material production. Production parameters can be changed on-the-fly, allowing WEAV3D® production to support multiple product lines during the same run. Production volume is dependent on the size and complexity of the WEAV3D® reinforcement being produced. The commercial (gen 2) machine can produce WEAV3D® reinforcing lattice structures for 500k parts the size of a car door on a single shift, 80% uptime per year. This number increases to millions of units per year for parts the size of a shoe sole, due to the smaller WEAV3D® reinforcing material size and the WEAV3D® machine technology's parallel part production capability. By end-of-year 2025, we will obtain our ISO 9001 certification and begin high volume production, achieving both TRL 9 and MRL 10.Geo
