Shapeways
3D printing/manufacturingUSA
New to Unitard
💀 Dead / Bankrupt
Peak $1.4 BillionToday
~-99%
from peak
- 🦄Became a unicorn2021
- 📈Peak valuation$1.4 Billion ’21
- 💔Became a UnitardJul 2024
- 💸Last valuationWiped out
🔥 Raised & burned
$107M
Total raised
$17.2K/day
Burned · 17.1y alive
Funding: Crunchbase/Tracxn
Current status
Chapter 7 liquidation (Jul 2024)
The rise & fall
5 moments · 2007–2024The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
2007
2007
Founded inside Philips
Spun out of a Philips incubator in the Netherlands, the on-demand 3D-printing marketplace later makes New York home.
Wikipedia
Aug 2021
Aug 2021
The peak: a $1.4B SPAC debut$1.4B
Fourteen years in, the marketplace goes public via SPAC at roughly a $1.4B market cap.
SEC filings
2022–23
2022–23
Losses all the way down
It never turns a profit as costs outrun the niche demand for on-demand printing.
SEC filings
2022–24
From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2022–24
Glassdoor reviewers called it early, arguing the company went public far too soon and the C-suite never grasped manufacturing. The finish matched their fears: a business collapsing overnight, some 200 workers jobless without warning — while insiders suspected leadership had seen it coming.
Jul 2024
Jul 2024
Chapter 7 — joins the Unitard Club 💔
No reorganization, straight to liquidation: seventeen years and a $1.4B SPAC debut end at roughly zero.
Court filing
$1.39Bof peak value erased · 17 years
💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
Shapeways ran an on-demand 3D-printing marketplace and manufacturing service, going public via SPAC in August 2021 at roughly a $1.4B market cap. It never turned a profit as costs outran its niche demand, and it filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in July 2024.
Source: SEC filings; SPAC Aug 2021
Where they went
- Greg KressCEOCo-Founder at OTTO dms
- Peter Weijmarshausenco-founder & CEO (spun it out of Philips' LifeStyle Incubator in 2007)CEO / Co-founder at Humane Genomics
- Robert Schouwenburgco-founder (left in 2012; helped buy the assets back out of bankruptcy in 2024)Board Member at Thangs3D
- Marleen Vogelaarco-founder & COO (left 2014; bought the assets out of bankruptcy in 2024 and is CEO of the revived Shapeways)CEO & Board Member at Thangs3D
Current roles as self-reported on LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-08-21. See our methodology.
