3D Printing in Fine Jewelry

This article was written in partnership with Grata.

Description

We looked in the Grata platform for companies that employ the use of computer-assisted design and 3D printing to produce fine jewelry.   

Most of the businesses we found are traditional brick and mortar retail jewelers who offer customers an additional service of designing or customizing a piece of jewelry. Where this design or ideation part of the process would traditionally be hand-drawn, the companies we looked at use CAD to mock up the designs, and 3D print a prototype. This 3D-printed piece can then be used to create the mold for the actual metal jewelry piece.  

Customers get the satisfaction of producing a one-of-a-kind keepsake, and the jeweler saves on what would otherwise be a time– and labor-intensive process.  

Our search also included a few companies a step up in the value chain that offer these CAD design and 3D printing services to jewelry shops.

Niche Size and Location 

We found more than 280 independently owned companies that employ CAD and 3D printing. Almost all were located in the United States with a couple in Canada, Europe and Asia, respectively.  

Avg. Company Size (by # of employees) 

Most of the companies on this list fall squarely in the small business category. Of the companies with employee counts online, 58% had a staff size of two to five people.  

The two largest jewelry companies on the list had 37 and 79 employees respectively. Beyond that, CAD design and 3D printing enterprise service providers were outliers, the largest having 331 employees.  

Growth/Hiring  

At least 28 companies in this niche experienced positive annual growth as indicated by hiring activity. 

Investment Activity 

There’s very little M&A activity in this area. Our search only found one event from 2015.