Azul 3D is a Skokie, Illinois deep-tech manufacturer that builds large-format, high-speed industrial 3D printers powered by its proprietary High Area Rapid Printing (HARP) technology. Spun out of Northwestern University in 2016, the company uses a flowing layer of non-stick fluorinated oil to carry away heat during continuous stereolithographic printing, which lets its machines produce human-sized polymer parts in hours rather than days. Its flagship LAKE printer targets manufacturers who want to make finished goods at scale instead of one-off prototypes.
Dimension Bio (formerly Dimension Inx) is a Chicago-based regenerative therapeutics company that turns living cells into implantable, tissue-like therapies. Its BioNidum platform fuses materials science, 3D printing, and digital manufacturing to build three-dimensional microenvironments that help transplanted cells survive, vascularize, and function in the body. A Northwestern University spinout, the company already brought the first FDA-cleared 3D-printed regenerative bone graft (CMFlex) to patients and is now aiming its lead program at acute liver failure - building an engineered, mini-liver-like therapy to stabilize patients and give their own organs a chance to recover.
OPT Industries is an MIT-spun materials foundry in Medford, Massachusetts that built the world's first roll-to-roll 3D printing platform, RAMP. By pairing computational design software with continuous additive manufacturing, OPT prints micron-precise materials at unlimited length and high volume - producing everything from the InstaSwab COVID-19 nasal swab to flockless cosmetic applicators and false eyelashes. The pitch is simple: one process, endless possibilities.
Steve Hoover is the CEO of Impossible Objects, the Northbrook, Illinois company commercializing CBAM (composite-based additive manufacturing), a from-the-ground-up 3D printing process that bonds carbon fiber and other composites into parts that are stronger, lighter and more heat-tolerant than conventional prints. A mechanical engineer with a Carnegie Mellon doctorate, he spent roughly two decades at Xerox, rising to corporate CTO and running PARC as CEO, before a stint leading RIT's Global Cybersecurity Institute and co-founding the art-recognition startup Artify.ai. He took the Impossible Objects helm in March 2023 to push composite 3D printing from prototypes into high-volume manufacturing.
Mike Yang is the co-founder and CEO of LuxCreo, the company behind the world's first FDA Class II 510(k)-cleared direct-print clear aligner. A Harvard PhD and Wharton MBA, Yang spent a decade at Bloom Energy raising over $1B in green technology before pivoting to reinvent dentistry with light-based additive manufacturing. Under his leadership LuxCreo secured backing from Kleiner Perkins, achieved FDA clearance in 2022, launched in Europe in 2025, and is pushing same-day, in-clinic aligner production into mainstream dentistry.
Hardik Kabaria is Co-Founder and CEO of Vinci4D.ai (now getvinci.ai), a Palo Alto-based AI company building a physics foundation model that makes hardware simulation 1000x faster than traditional finite element analysis. A Stanford PhD in Mechanics and Computation, he spent eight years at Carbon - the 3D printing unicorn - rising from software engineer to CXO before founding Vinci in 2023. His company emerged from stealth in December 2025 with $46M raised from Xora Innovation, Khosla Ventures, and Eclipse, already deployed with three leading semiconductor manufacturers and validated by over half the world's top 20 chip companies.