SendCutSend, the Reno-based manufacturer of custom metal parts, has raised a Series B round valuing the company at $2.1 billion, five months after securing its first major institutional funding.
The round was led by Spark, with participation from CRV, MHS, Sequoia and Paradigm. SendCutSend said the money would be used to expand its capacity, shorten lead times and build locations closer to customers.
Jim Belosic, the company’s co-founder, had avoided venture capital for years as SendCutSend grew. The business began in 2018 after an experiment involving a steam-powered Ford Model A led him to discover the potential of laser-cut metal.
Belosic needed small, intricate letters for the throttle control on the car, which was inspired by the computer game Oregon Trail. A friend of a friend laser-cut the pieces, providing the starting point for a company that turns customers’ digital designs into bespoke metal components.
“We made the pickleball keychains,” Belosic said of SendCutSend’s first order. “Then orders trickled in from there, and it kept going, and going, and going.”
The company now serves customers including Zipline, Telo Trucks, Neros, Waymo, K2 Space, Relativity, Anduril and Castelion. It also counts 60% of Fortune 500 companies among its customers, according to the company.
SendCutSend Series B funding to support expansion
The latest investment follows a Series A round in the spring that valued SendCutSend at $1.1 billion. That funding came after Sequoia partner Andrew Reed visited Belosic in Reno, shortly after the two connected.
“The fact that Jim was able to build this business to the scale of nine digits of revenue without a major institutional VC round, it’s the ultimate example of suction,” Reed said.
He added that the new capital could be put towards faster service for customers and additional sites, rather than being held as a reserve.
Belosic said his priorities differed from those of a conventional Silicon Valley entrepreneur. “I never wanted to be a Silicon Valley entrepreneur,” he said. “I never said: ‘Oh, I’m going to build a company and do financial gymnastics to IPO.’ No, I want to build a business. There’s a difference between a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and an owner.”
He said he particularly valued using investment to create jobs and improve employees’ prospects, rather than focusing solely on financial returns.
“My favorite use of VC dollars is turning it into mortgages, turning it into baby formula, turning it into onesies, turning it into opportunities for our guys to go from a bicycle to a car,” Belosic said. “I love taking VC dollars and putting it directly in the payroll.”
SendCutSend’s expansion comes as investors put more money into US reindustrialisation. Belosic said he wanted the company to become a “foundational layer” in a domestic manufacturing chain, in which metal could be mined and processed in the US before being used by other manufacturers.
“The future of manufacturing will be made in America,” he said.
