Is Velo3D Poised to Revolutionize 3-D Printing--and Robotics?

Velo3D, based in Santa Clara, Calif., has 22.1 million in venture investment to do something in 3-D printing: That makes it fourth among 2015's best-funded stealth-mode tech companies in the United States, according to CB Insights. This dollar number is about all the hard news that has come out of this startup, founded in 2014 by Benyamin Butler and Erel Milshtein. But job postings, talks at conferences, and other breadcrumbs left along Velo3D's development trail--has created a sketchy outline of this company's plans. Consider which 3-D printing technology is ready for disruption: metal. Printing of metal objects--done regularly in industry, particularly aerospace--uses a different, and, to date, far more expensive technology: selective laser sintering.