Velo3D, Inc. (NASDAQ: VELO)

Velo3D, Inc. (VLD) operates in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry, delivering breakthroughs in performance, cost, and lead time in the production of high-value metal parts. The company's proprietary laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) technology enables the production of complex metal parts with internal features and geometries that were previously considered impossible to produce using traditional AM technologies.

Velo3D's main business activities revolve around providing a fully integrated hardware and software solution based on its L-PBF technology. This technology is novel as it can deliver high-value metal parts with complex internal channels, structures, and geometries, providing a wide breadth of design freedom for creating new metal parts and enabling the replication of existing parts without the need to redesign them to be manufacturable with AM. The company's primary focus is on the high-performance metal parts segment, where demand for its solution is expected to be the strongest.

The company generates revenue primarily from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and contract manufacturers (CMs) who look to AM to solve issues with traditional manufacturing technologies for metal parts. Velo3D's competitive strengths include its disruptive AM platform, which is capable of producing complex designs; existing relationships with blue-chip customers across its target end markets; a fully integrated turnkey solution that can be easily integrated into customer operations; and a deep moat of intellectual property protections.

Velo3D's product platforms include the Sapphire family of systems, which are fully integrated solutions that include the Flow design software and Assure quality control software. The Sapphire printer system is the company's first-generation production machine, while the Sapphire XC and Sapphire XC 1MZ systems are its second-generation printers, which have larger build modules and higher volumes. The company also offers Flow Developer, which allows companies to develop parameters for their alloys, and Assure, which is an advanced quality control software platform that includes process metrologies to ensure repeatable, consistent part quality.

In terms of customer base, Velo3D's customers range from small- and medium-sized enterprises to Fortune 500 companies in the space, aviation, defense, automotive, energy, and industrial markets. Its largest customer, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), accounted for 4.0% and 28.4% of its revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Velo3D's sales occur under purchase orders that are governed by its terms and conditions of sale, and its machines are not resalable without consent and software licenses are not transferable to certain geographic markets to protect its intellectual property.

Velo3D's sales and marketing strategy is oriented around building deep and lasting relationships with leading global manufacturers. The company seeks to compete by maximizing the value it creates for its customers, and its engineers engage with customers to identify the specific parts and processes where its solutions can add the most immediate value. The company's marketing strategy is focused on building relationships with leading global manufacturers and demonstrating the utility of its technology across multiple target markets.

The Sapphire, Flow, and Assure are some of the brand names and/or trade names of its products and services that Velo3D offers. These product platforms enable the production of complex high-value metal parts, design and development of alloy parameters, and quality control, respectively.