Founder Spotlight: Richard Mincher

Richard Mincher is the Founder and CEO of Forg3d, an advanced manufacturing startup currently based in the UK but with ambitions to scale fast and enter the US market, where Reindustrialisation is booming. Having invested recently, MD One's Will McManners spoke with Richard, and discussed their fullstack manufacturing platform which is redefining sovereign metal manufacturing, upgrading a millennia old forging process to the Digital Age.

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How has your business progressed since company inception to today?

A lot! We started with a new method of 3D printing metal, we’re now developing a full-stack digital platform for metal manufacturing. I have learned a huge amount- but fundamentally I think the key thing is to make decisions fast, and don’t look back; hindsight always has an Instagram filter.

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Do you have any news on contracts, products or pipeline we can share?

We’ve just secured follow on projects with the UK Atomic Energy Authority for some exciting work in the Fusion sector and we’ve got something special brewing with a major Aerospace Prime that we unfortunately can’t share yet.

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How have Forg3D target markets grown or changed since you founded the company?

Initially I assumed it would be Defence, but Aerospace, Space and Energy have become the key areas for us in the last 12 months. The push for re-shoring and especially sovereign supply chains has nudged a fundamental shift in how the manufacturing sector is viewed and operates.

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How do you plan on retaining your lead in an increasingly competitive and crowded market, and what are the next products in your development pipeline?

Fast execution and collaboration. We solve part of the puzzle, and because it’s such a big opportunity, it makes more sense to collaborate with others who compliment us than try to do everything and never get it off the ground.

Development wise- Software and monitoring. We’re upgrading the software we use internally into something pretty special and, we think, unique in the market.

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How do you see your product giving an edge to allied National Security?

True resilience means being able to produce. Stockpiling helps, obviously, but we need to be able to make and then keep making whatever it is we need at that moment in time. This is why we believe flexible manufacturing through Digital Metal Forming vs. traditional forging is a critical next step.

So far, national security makes people more open to futuristic ideas and visions whereas commercial markets want clear solutions now. For example, for the Aerospace sector we promote a ‘wire to wing’ or turnkey manufacturing concept, whereas for national security we emphasise sovereign supply chains. If we’re serious about building nuclear reactors, we need to have a British supply chain. Look at what happened with British steel recently.

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Have you noticed any improvements or government willingness to adopt new technologies recently?

It’s definitely giving private investors more confidence to invest in less traditional tech startups like ours. We’re hoping to see more support from government given this is classed as a ‘critical technology.’

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Where do you see the future of the business?

We’re growing fast and we’re about to start building out the software stack significantly so that will be a key area of focus for us. Top of the list development wise is our real-time monitoring system to support rapid development and ultimately qualification. We have some cool ideas for products in the future as well.

There are some market bottlenecks that we need to address in my opinion and from what I’m seeing. The sectors we are targeting tend to be conservative, for obvious reasons but even here I’ve seen a shift in the last 12 months. The feedback we’re now hearing is that the innovations we offer are no longer a nice to have but a necessity.

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How did you get interested in your sector initially?

I grew up with manufacturing, with a family business that our parents built from the ground up so I got to see how awesome manufacturing can be. Being exposed to Energy, Aerospace and even Space projects made it even easier to dive into. This is probably why I was so determined to set up FORG3D, to unlock the potential of additive manufacturing after seeing firsthand the challenges of how we currently make things.

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Find out more: https://forg3d.ai

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About MD One Ventures:

Founded in 2021 as Europe's first National Security specialist VC, MD One Ventures is a Venture Capital firm, investing in Pre- Seed to Series A National Security technology companies.

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