injection-molding
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The Firm Buying Back America's Factory Floor - Then Handing It to the Workers
Two brothers watched private equity buy their father's factory and shut it down. Their answer was to build a manufacturing group that ends with the employees owning the whole thing.
Prototyping.io
Prototyping.io is a San Francisco startup (YC Spring 2026) building an AI-native manufacturing platform that turns CAD designs into finished mechanical parts in as little as one day. It automates the traditionally manual path from design to production - DFM analysis, sourcing, process planning, machine programming and setups - so hardware teams can iterate in days instead of weeks. The company serves customers from early-stage startups to multi-billion-dollar enterprises across robotics, AI infrastructure, energy, automotive and defense.
Shapeways
Shapeways is an Eindhoven-based 3D printing and digital manufacturing company that lets individuals and businesses upload 3D files and receive custom parts made through additive manufacturing, CNC machining and injection molding. Founded in 2007 inside Royal Philips, it pioneered a public 3D printing service and marketplace, went public via SPAC in 2021, filed for bankruptcy in 2024, and was relaunched in December 2024 by its original founders and the profitable Eindhoven factory team with a renewed focus on B2B customers, sustainability and operational stability.
Factorem
Factorem is an AI-driven on-demand manufacturing platform based in Singapore. Founded in 2020 by Alexandra Zhang and Hardik Dobariya, it lets engineering and hardware teams upload a CAD file, get an instant quote, and order custom parts - CNC machining, 3D printing, sheet metal fabrication, injection molding and surface treatment - from a vetted network of Southeast Asian factories, with no minimum order quantity. The platform uses AI to scan designs, match them to the best-suited manufacturer, and manage end-to-end fulfilment, compressing prototyping timelines from months to days.
Alexandra Zhang
Alexandra Zhang is the co-founder and CEO of Factorem, an AI-native, on-demand manufacturing platform born in Singapore that connects hardware and photonics teams with a vetted network of factories across Southeast Asia. After hitting sourcing walls as an engineer building EV transmissions in Toronto, she built the platform she wished she'd had: instant quotes, no minimum order quantities, and lead times cut from months to days. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, she relocated from Singapore to Colorado to open the U.S. market, which now drives nearly half of company sales.