Desktop Metal completes Trine business combination, becomes publicly listed
December 11, 2020
Desktop Metal, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA, has completed its business combination agreement with Trine Acquisition Corp. (TRNE), and become a publicly listed company. Trine is a special-purpose acquisition company led by Leo Hindery, Jr., and HPS Investment Partners, a global credit investment firm.
The resulting company is Desktop Metal, Inc. and, from December 10, 2020, trades common stock and warrants under the new ticker symbols ‘DM’ and ‘DM.WT’ on the New York Stock Exchange.
The transaction was unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of Trine and was also approved at a special meeting of the company’s stockholders on December 8, 2020. As a result of this transaction, Desktop Metal has received approximately $580 million of gross proceeds from Trine’s trust account and concurrent equity private placements.
Founded in 2015, Desktop Metal has quickly grown to become a global enterprise offering a wide range of Additive Manufacturing solutions. The company has distribution in more than sixty countries around the world and adoption from leading companies in the automotive, consumer products, industrial automation, medical devices, aerospace and defence industries.
“Today is an exciting moment and major milestone for our company and for the Additive Manufacturing industry at large,” stated Ric Fulop, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Desktop Metal. “With a broad portfolio of solutions offering revolutionary ease of use and productivity for the AM industry, Desktop Metal is uniquely positioned to disrupt how parts are made across a wide range of industries.”
“The capital raised through our transition to a publicly-traded company will accelerate our global go-to-market efforts, enhance our relentless efforts in R&D, and allow us to capitalise on the tremendous growth opportunities we see over the next decade as we integrate industry-leading technology and intellectual property with strong secular growth trends around AM. We are excited to bring Desktop Metal to the public markets as the only pure-play Additive Manufacturing 2.0 company and offer everyone the opportunity to invest in a company aiming to transform the manufacturing industry.”
According to Desktop Metal, the AM industry grew at a 20% annual compound rate between 2006–2016, accelerating to 25% compound annual growth over the last three years — a rate that is expected to continue over the next decade as the market grows from $12 billion in 2019 to an estimated $146 billion in 2030.
Fulop added, “We believe the AM industry is at a major inflection point and that Desktop Metal is at the forefront of this transformation. This market inflection is being driven by the emergence of AM 2.0 a wave of next-generation AM technologies that unlocks throughput, repeatability, and competitive part costs with a focus on making AM an easy to use, economic solution for mass production. These solutions feature key innovations across printers, materials, and software to pull AM into direct competition with conventional processes used to manufacture $12 trillion in goods annually.”
Leo Hindrey, Jr., Desktop Metal board member and chairman and CEO of Trine Acquisition Corp. commented, “Desktop Metal is poised to revolutionise the manufacturing industry by applying transformative AM 2.0 technologies to the products and industries that will drive the economy in the 21st century. The company has a distinct first-mover advantage over competitors and the injection of capital from this transaction, a large portion of which will be dedicated to continuous product innovation, will protect and extend this first-mover advantage.”
