The Blueprint for Hardware Success: micro factory's Journey to Automation

Born from frustration with the status quo and a bold idea to change it. 

Anyone who has used a resin-based 3D printer knows the process is not exactly straightforward as it is sold. It requires multiple manual steps after printing, often creating a mess and posing health risks due to exposure to potentially harmful chemicals and fumes. Furthermore, those manual steps pose the risk of process variations making applications for regulated markets nearly impossible. micro factory is tackling these issues head-on by combining the printing process with the post-processing steps: by integrating printing, washing, and curing into one single and fully automated machine, a customer-centric and safe process is created eliminating hassle, improving safety, and keeping costs low. 

Founded by three students from Hochschule München, the team evolved from university tinkerers to deep tech founders, supported every step of the way by Munich’s thriving startup ecosystem. 

From Idea to Prototype 

Like many startups, micro factory began with a real-world problem: most resin-based 3D printers are messy and overly complicated. Surprisingly, no one had seriously attempted to integrate the entire resin printing process into one accessible, all-in-one machine, at least not outside the industrial sector. The team saw this as both a technical challenge and a business opportunity. 

Early support from the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE) at Munich University of Applied Sciences (HM) was instrumental in the team’s early success. After completing the SCE Startup Certificate program, winning the first prize and €5,000 at   the Strascheg Award, the team secured additional €7,500 from the Kickstart@HM grant, enabling to build their first prototype at the c.lab - the makerspace unit of the HM. This early version successfully demonstrated their vision and immediately attracted interest from potential users - validating the need for a cleaner, more efficient solution. 

Further support came from TUM Venture Lab Additive Manufacturing, whose domain expertise helped the team with the final touches of their application for the EXIST-Gründungsstipendium, a German government startup scholarship. The funding gave them enough resources to focus on product development and customer validation for the next 12 months. 

Finding the Right Market 

The professional 3D printing market is vast and segmented. For micro factory, pinpointing the right entry point was key. Potential use cases spanned from dental clinics to engineering labs and automotive prototyping departments. 

With guidance from the TUM Venture Lab Additive Manufacturing, the team identified sectors where the need for customization and workflow simplification was most urgent, thus yielding the highest potential: Dental Laboratories. Yet to be validated, the direction was set, and the team started executing.  

From Idea to Execution with XPLORE 

Without execution, great ideas fall flat. Through UnternehmerTUM’s XPLORE Market Pioneer program, micro factory built further on a go-to-market strategy, developed a pricing model, and maintained ongoing conversations with early users and strategic partners. Instead of pitching assumptions, they tested the most promising opportunities in the real world. 

From Prototype to Product 

Scaling from prototype to product brought a new set of challenges. Complex engineering hurdles, like fluid separation during printing, evaporation control during washing, and isolating the UV-curing phase demanded innovative solutions and a space where these could be built. The Solution: The team lived and worked at the c.lab and refined their design at the UnternehmerTUM Makerspace in the Munich Urban Colab. The result is a system now protected by one patent granted and three pending patents. 

To build these prototypes, additional funding was provided by the UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators Prototyping Grant, a non-dilutive grant for deep tech startups, often making the difference to get to the next stage. 

Growing Up 

A critical step in each Start-up's journey is the transition from Prototype to Production of the actual, sellable Product. To prepare for manufacturing, the team joined the TUM Asia Venture Program, traveling to Beijing and Shenzhen. Visits to Tsinghua University to learn more about the Chines Start-up Ecosystem but also visiting local manufacturers and suppliers gave them firsthand insight into supply chains, production processes, and strategic scaling.  

At the same time, the team joined XPRENEURS, UnternehmerTUM’s growth-focused incubator, to prepare for follow-on funding, vital for hardware startups with higher capital needs and complex cost structures. Within the program, they also got in contact with valuable Mentors such as Ferdie Bruijnen, former VP of 3D Systems Corporation, supporting the team in many invaluable aspects. 

Scaling the Business 

As micro factory transitions from early adopters to broader markets, a phase often called “crossing the chasm”, credibility becomes essential. One strategic step to build credibility: partnering with the polyclinic of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) to scientifically validate the system’s performance and safety, directly addressing customer concerns around reliability and reproducibility Within this collaboration, the system’s in-machine post-curing characteristics have been examined as part of a thesis, and a subsequent thesis including post-curing and cleaning is already in the planning.   

Conclusion 

In The Power Law, Sebastian Mallaby attributes Silicon Valley’s rise to a mix of talent, capital, and risk-taking. The case of micro factory demonstrates that Munich offers the same ingredients: Top universities with diverse talent, strong funding and support structures, and a deep culture of applied innovation. 

This formula enables a seamless hardware journeys across institutions and programs, lowering barriers for founders to create impactful deep tech start-ups. 

From helping fellow students in the Creative Labc.lab - a place for creativity to inspecting supply chains in Shenzhen and developing a patented hardware platform, micro factory is living proof that world-class innovation is still can be developed and scaled in Germany. More than just a startup, they’re a case study in how an idea can grow from a student project to a full-fledged product. 

To all partners: thank you. Let’s keep building the future - together.