ThinkMetal, a Chennai-based advanced materials and manufacturing technology startup, has raised Rs 27 crore in a fresh funding round led by IAN Alpha Fund. Venture firm 3i Partners and existing investors also joined the round, the company said.

The money will go into product development, expanding the startup’s materials research and development, and pushing wider adoption of its metal manufacturing technology among industrial customers. ThinkMetal did not disclose its valuation or the exact split of the round.

The funding and the investors

IAN Alpha Fund led the round. Rajnish Kapur, managing partner at the fund, said strong nations are built on core materials and manufacturing technologies they own, and pointed to ThinkMetal’s more than 17 intellectual property filings as a reason to back the company.

The round also drew 3i Partners, which backs early growth stage Indian companies, along with existing backers. This is not ThinkMetal’s first cheque. The company had earlier raised USD 800,000, about Rs 6.7 crore, in a pre-Series A round led by YourNest Venture Capital as part of the YourNest-SanchiConnect Velocity Program. BSE-listed Concept Communications and Sanchi Connect co-invested in that round.

What ThinkMetal builds

ThinkMetal develops indigenous technology for high-value precision metal manufacturing, with an initial focus on industrial metal additive manufacturing. Its commercial product is SistemT1, a compact industrial metal additive manufacturing system. The system runs on the company’s proprietary FuseX metal filament.

Read more: Semiconductor startup Tessolve raised USD 75 million led by Vector Line Capital, another deep-tech hardware round from India’s engineering and manufacturing sector.

The process, which ThinkMetal calls Metal Fused Additive Manufacturing, builds parts layer by layer from an engineered metal filament and then puts them through debinding and high-temperature sintering to reach full metal strength. The current FuseX material library includes stainless steel 316L, stainless steel 17-4PH and pure copper, with tool steels and ceramics in development. A software layer called Thinkware handles the production workflow.

According to the company, the system can make high-value precision metal parts up to 10 times faster than conventional methods and at about half the cost. Those are the company’s own numbers and have not been independently verified.

The customers and the market

ThinkMetal sells to manufacturers in aerospace, defence, space, automotive and electric mobility. It said it has moved from technology development into enterprise pilots and is now working towards larger commercial deployments.

According to IAN Alpha Fund, the company has made at least 17 intellectual property filings. The funding announcement did not say how many of those have been granted. ThinkMetal estimates a global market opportunity of about USD 110 billion across advanced manufacturing and materials, though it did not give a detailed breakdown of that estimate.

Background and the founders

ThinkMetal was founded in March 2021 by Sabyasachi Ghosh and Arushi Sharma. The two met as engineering students at SRM University, worked together during the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition and later led research and development at a 3D printing startup.

Ghosh, co-founder and chief executive, leads operations and brings experience in mechanical design and product development. Sharma, co-founder and chief technology officer, leads the technology team with a focus on design and materials. The company is based in Perungudi, in Chennai’s industrial estate.

Ghosh said the investment is an important step in ThinkMetal’s journey from technology development towards commercialisation, and that the long-term focus remains on building deep indigenous capabilities in materials and manufacturing technologies from India for global markets.

What happens next

ThinkMetal said the fresh capital will strengthen its team and materials capabilities and speed up adoption across industrial applications. The company is expanding its materials library and building in-house ability to process new materials.

The round is small by Indian startup funding standards, but it lands at the stage where a hardware company has to prove it can move from pilot projects to repeat production. That, more than the cheque size, is the milestone to watch.