Living in a maker’s paradise: Other Machine Co. is raising $3M

In an SEC filing today, we learn that Other Machine Co., a startup focusing on fabrication, has collected $1.18 million of a proposed $3 million round.

San Francisco-based Other Machine Co. is all about desktop manufacturing. Like 3D printer companies, it wants to make innovation and invention in hardware something anyone can do in their spare time and space.

The company produces small computer numerical controlled (CNM) machines, starting with Othermill, a 15-pound, 10-inch cube that creates circuit boards, ice cube trays, etc. by cutting out small pieces of physical material one layer at a time. (So, it’s kind of the opposite of a 3D printer, which molds material according to a design — kind of like the difference between negative and positive space.

Here’s what that looks like in action:

Othermill actually started out as a Kickstarter project, after which the team incorporated as Other Machine Co.

And of course, there’s a thick layer of software involved — a desktop CAD/CAM tool for would-be makers. In fact, it looks like at least some of this funding will be used to hire a full-stack desktop software dev.

Here’s a (long) demo of that piece of the puzzle:

“Like the desktop printing revolution of the early ’90s, we are at the edge of a monumental shift towards technologies that used to be out of reach,” the founders state on the company website.

“We want to participate in creating these new technologies and bringing them to the general public.”

The Other Machine Co. adventure began in 2012. The founders named in the filing include CEO Danielle Applestone, a UT-Austin PhD grad with experience at the Naval Research Laboratory, and MIT researcher and serial entrepreneur Saul Griffith.