Impossible Objects Raises $40 Million to Scale Industrial 3D Printing

Impossible Objects, the Northbrook, Illinois company building industrial-scale composite 3D printing systems, has closed a $40 million Series B funding round led by Inflection Equity. The money goes toward ramping production of its CBAM 25 system, expanding customer deployments, and growing the service organization needed to support a larger installed base.

The financing follows a string of government contracts that gives the company credibility most 3D printing startups cannot claim. Impossible Objects has already secured $20 million in U.S. government SBIR awards and has its systems deployed at the U.S. Army Rock Island Arsenal, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the National Institute for Aviation Research.

What CBAM actually does

Composite-Based Additive Manufacturing, or CBAM, is not the same process most people picture when they hear 3D printing. Instead of melting plastic filament through a hot nozzle, CBAM lays sheets of thermoplastic film reinforced with carbon fiber, cuts the part shape on each layer with a laser, and then fuses the stack under heat and pressure. The result is a strong, lightweight composite part with properties closer to traditionally manufactured carbon fiber components than to typical 3D-printed plastic.

The CBAM 25 can print up to 25 layers per minute, a rate Impossible Objects says is 15 times faster than competing production additive technologies. Parts can reach strengths of up to 200 MPa, roughly four times stronger than what competing additive processes can deliver. The company also says the process produces minimal shrinkage and warpage, which has long been a weakness in large-format additive manufacturing.

Why defense customers care

The U.S. Army Rock Island Arsenal deployment is the most concrete proof point for the technology. The system there can produce up to 10,000 drone bodies per month, a volume that requires something closer to a factory line than a lab experiment. The Army's interest reflects a broader defense trend: the Pentagon wants manufacturing technology that can deliver parts faster and without the long lead times that come with traditional tooling. CBAM eliminates the need for expensive molds and fixtures, which matters when the requirement is flexibility as much as throughput.

Impossible Objects founder and chairman Robert Swartz framed the funding round in historical terms, comparing the technology to the original industrial milling revolution and the introduction of interchangeable parts. That is the kind of language venture-backed manufacturing companies often use, but the actual customer list and the government contract wins back up the claim better than most press releases manage.

Where this goes next

The Series B gives Impossible Objects roughly three years of runway to scale. The company has already taken five orders for the CBAM 25 since its early 2025 launch, and demand across aerospace, defense, and advanced manufacturing is described by the company and its investors as explosive. The test will be whether the system can move from custom installations at research labs and military facilities to mainstream production environments without the hand-holding that early industrial 3D printing deployments required.

For the broader 3D printing industry, the funding is a signal that investors are still willing to bet large sums on manufacturing technology, even after a period of market skepticism. A $40 million round for a company that has real revenue and real government customers is a different conversation than the valuation-heavy, revenue-light funding rounds that characterized the additive manufacturing boom of the early 2020s.