Philanthropy and Philosophy. Shapeways Raises $30M C Round, Led By Andreessen Horowitz. April 23, 2013 3D printing service Shapeways today announced a $30 million Series C round of financing, led by Andreessen Horowitz.
The current investors of Shapeways, including Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures, and Lux Capital also participated in the round. Chris Dixon, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, is joining the executive board of the company. "Shapeways eliminates the fixed costs of manufacturing and makes use of breakthrough advances in 3D printing," says Chris Dixon, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, who is also a big fan of 3D printing. "We believe that technology is at its best when it enables human creativity. Shapeways plans to use the Series C financing to grow its team, build more factories, and continue to overcome the technological challenges that will allow them to revolutionize 3D printing even further. The company currently hosts 10,000 shops with over 1,000,000 3D-printed products. Source: Shapeways. Chinese government announces $6.5M for 3D printing research. New Frontiers Entrepreneur Development Programme. New Frontiers is Enterprise Ireland’s national entrepreneur development programme for innovative, early-stage startups.
It is a three-phased programme, based in 14 campus incubation centres across the country. Each year, New Frontiers funds 150 companies. If you believe that you are capable of building a sustainable new business, trading internationally, creating employment and generating revenue in your locality, act now and apply for a place on Ireland's largest entrepreneur development programme.
Main Benefits of this Programme De-risk your business model€15,000 tax-free grantNo equity taken from your businessHot-desk and incubation facilitiesIntroduction to government and private investment opportunities Programme Outline New Frontiers is a three-phase programme that is designed to provide an integrated and comprehensive set of business development supports to participants.
Phase 1 - Validate Phase 2 - Plan You must be available for full-time participation in this six month course. Current funding opportunities - Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland. PRESS RELEASES - Press Release - MANIFESTO FOR A RESOURCE-EFFICIENT EUROPE. European Commission Brussels, 17 December 2012 In a world with growing pressures on resources and the environment, the EU has no choice but to go for the transition to a resource-efficient and ultimately regenerative circular economy.
Our future jobs and competitiveness, as a major importer of resources, are dependent on our ability to get more added value, and achieve overall decoupling, through a systemic change in the use and recovery of resources in the economy. According to the OECD, this could lead to steady economic growth with business opportunities across the whole economy. Europe is taking important decisions on strengthening economic and monetary union, the future EU budget and engaging with the international community in the follow up of the Rio+20 Summit. The Platform will issue a more detailed set of short term policy recommendations to address these issues in June 2013. The Members of the European Resource Efficiency Platform are: Mr. Dr. Mr Ian Cheshire CEO Kingfisher, UK.
Skillnets. Skillnets receives funding from the National Training Fund (NTF) through the Department of Education and Skills (DES).
Funding is made available through grants to approved training networks enabling member companies of the networks to avail of significant discounts on market training rates. The member companies also contribute match funding to a ratio agreed by the training network and Skillnets. Under the current Training Networks Programme (TNP) 2012/13, up to 50% of the cost of all eligible network activities is provided. Under the current programme funding model eligible unemployed people can attend selected training courses run by the training networks at no cost to themselves. See Skillnets funding levels 2008 - 2013 below. There is no funding available at the moment for the creation of new training networks but you can join one of our current training networks at any time and if you would like to be notified when new funding is available you can also sign up for news.
18 December, 2012- Address by the Minister for Training and Skills, Ciarán Cannon, at the launch of the Labour Market Education and Training Fund- “MOMENTUM – FOCUS YOUR TALENT” - Department of Education and Skills. Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests, Minister Quinn, An Tánaiste.
I am delighted to be here today at the launch of the MOMENTUM – MOMENTUM is a successor to the successful Labour Market Activation Fund in 2010 which saw the provision of education and training programmes to over 12,000 unemployed people. I would like to congratulate FAS on the occasion of this launch. I know that a considerable amount of hard work by many people in the organisation has enabled this event to take place. Minister Quinn has set out in more detail how the MOMENTUM education and training fund will operate. As I am sure you are all well aware, the Irish Further Education and Training sector is undergoing major structural reform. I am the Chairman of the SOLAS Implementation Group which was established to implement these changes.
Following the publication of a SOLAS consultation paper in late 2011, the Department of Education and Skills received over 150 submissions. Thank you. Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) - Home.