BOLOGNA, Italy – The first important results come from the IMA Group’s high-profile partnerships and collaborations with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, the most important university in the world for applied research.
Inkbit, a Boston-based startup and MIT spin-off, has in fact closed a new $12 million financing round after attracting the interest of large groups already operating in the sector, including Stratasys, the inventor of 3D printing and a world leader in the marketing of printing machines and materials.
Inkbit, an affiliate of IMA which contributed to its creation in 2017, was the first to create a 3D printer using artificial intelligence and vision, creating additive production systems and solving various problems in the manufacturing world.
Inkbit’s growth is just the latest in a series of investments promoted by the Group to strengthen its technological assets. In fact, IMA has set up a genuine observatory to monitor the most significant areas from the point of view of technological innovation, a strategy that has led to the emergence of successful collaborations and synergies, such as the one with the MIT in Boston.
Thanks to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the IMA Group is kept up to date on laboratory research of potential interest. And thanks to this collaboration, further synergies and partnerships have been born in the USA in areas that are particularly fertile from the point of view of innovation, areas such as Boston, Washington and Silicon Valley.
Through the MIT, IMA became a partner in 2014 (with an investment of $2.5 million) of Continuus Pharmaceuticals, a company that just a few months ago raised $5 million in a Series B financing round to boost its rate of growth. Thanks to collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry, Continuus Pharmaceuticals has developed Integrated Continuus Manufacturing (ICM) technologies, which makes the process of producing active ingredients for pharmaceuticals faster and more efficient.
Contacts have been developed with Washington think tanks in the field of Advanced Manufacturing, including the ITIF (Information Technology & Innovation Foundation). Also significant is the collaboration with the Economic Strategy Institute of Washington to observe the evolution of artificial intelligence in manufacturing. In Silicon Valley, together with the University of Bologna, the IMA Group has financed a Design Thinking program on collaborative robotics that will involve talented people coming from Stanford University and the University of Bologna.
Within the close collaboration that binds IMA to the MIT in Boston, the Group’s membership of the ILP (Industrial Liaison Program) has been fundamental, as through it IMA has direct access to MIT departments and teaching staff for an exchange of ideas on technologies that are destined to revolutionize the world of manufacturing.
