Fabheads Automation Pvt Ltd

Carbon fiber is composed of carbon atoms bonded together to form a long chain. There is a growing awareness about this material given that they are stronger than steel but at the same time 1/3rd the weight of the steel; making it the ideal manufacturing material for many parts. They are especially in very high demand in aerospace, defence, electrical & electronics, and automotive industries around the globe. However, the cost of deploying this material is higher given that it involves manual processes to manufacture them due to the lack of cutting-edge technologies. Hence, there has been a growing need for automation in this space.

Fabheads develops automated manufacturing technologies specific to the carbon fiber part manufacturing sector. It is the only player in India to have developed technological expertise in manufacturing carbon fibre parts through 3D printing. This is because carbon fiber is a relatively new material and hence not many companies specialise in it. Due to this, there are very few skilled experts in this field across the world.

The Company was started by Dhinesh Kangaraj (CEO) in 2015 who was later joined by Abhijeet Rathore (CTO). Both of them had earlier worked at the Indian Space Research Organization (‘ISRO’). The Company was incubated at IIT-Madras Research Park in 2016.

Fabheads has been recognised for their innovative work by various agencies including DRDO (Dare to Dream Innovation Award 2019), DIPP (National Startup Award 2020 by Startup India), DIO (Defence Innovation Organisation’s — iDEX Winner), MoD (Trailblazers of Indian Aerospace — Aero India 2019), JEC Media (Outstanding Innovation in Composites 2018), CII (Top Startup in Manufacturing — 2018), among others.

· Fabheads has developed India’s first and only continuous fiber 3D printing machines.

· The company initially started with carbon fiber component fabrication services on a pilot basis to get a better understanding of the market.

· After running the pilot service for over a year, the company started manufacturing 3D printing machines.

· It has developed 3 broad variants of the machines i.e FibrBot 1K Enterprise, FibrBot 300 Enterprise, and FibrBot 300S, by way of intended applications which works on the patented technology by Fabheads.

Industry landscape:

· The carbon fiber market is projected to grow from US$ 4.7 Bn in 2019 to US$ 13.3 Bn by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 11.0%.

· The global composites market size is projected to grow from US$ 74.0 Bn in 2020 to US$ 112.8 Bn in 2025, growing at a CAGR of 8.8%.

· Fabheads has the capability to incorporate (Carbon, Kevlar, Glass & Natural Fiber, Nylon, PEI, PETG) for 3D printing.

Rationale for investment:

· Strong founder and management team pedigree — Founder along with key people in top management have worked at ISRO earlier and come with a very strong technical background. An ideal team to back in this kind of highly-skilled sector.

· Market opportunity — Carbon composites are the material of the future and their awareness is only increasing with multiple use cases, especially, across electric vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, defence, oil & gas, renewable energy, aeronautics, electronics, and host of other sectors.

Conclusion:

Automation in the composite manufacturing sector is the way forward as it can reduce production costs and increase reliability and repeatability. Fabheads’ continuous fiber printing technology is a completely automated process for fabricating full composite parts. Being a completely additive process, there is no wastage which saves a lot of costs and thus reduces the cost of the end product dramatically. Fabheads believes that future composites will be the prime material in the mainstream market going forward and so it is dedicated towards building better technologies that can cater to high upcoming demands.

The above report has been prepared by Rockstud Capital LLP (“Investment Manager”) for informational purposes only and is subject to change without notice. The delivery of the report does not imply that the information contained herein is correct as of any time subsequent to the date specified in the contents of the Information. The financials in the above report are intentionally not mentioned due to confidentiality reasons.

To know more about Rockstud Capital, visit www.rockstudcap.com

Fabheads Automation Pvt Ltd

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