---
title: "Asahi Kasei to invest in CASTOR Technologies"
url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/asahi-kasei-to-invest-in-castor-technologies/
date: 2023-05-19
modified: 2023-05-19
lang: en
author: "Edward Wakefield"
description: "Asahi Kasei, a Japanese chemistry group, has announced plans to invest in CASTOR Technologies Ltd., an Israeli startup specializing in the development of 3D printing software. In addition to utilizing..."
categories:
  - "AM Software"
  - "Workflow/MES/MOS"
tags:
  - "future"
image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/asahi-3-640x360.jpeg
word_count: 314
---

# Asahi Kasei to invest in CASTOR Technologies

Asahi Kasei, a Japanese chemistry group, has announced plans to invest in [CASTOR Technologies Ltd., an Israeli startup](https://www.voxelmatters.directory/company/castor/) specializing in the development of 3D printing software. In addition to utilizing CASTOR’s software and services, the investment will allow the group to pursue synergies between its CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) technical service for plastic products and CASTOR’s software.

Typically, an engineer decides whether or not to use 3D printing to manufacture particular parts, and modifies the parts accordingly, if necessary. CASTOR’s software offers an alternative route, with its proprietary algorithm automatically selecting parts that are suitable for 3D printing, from CAD drawings of thousands of parts in a bill of materials (BOM), and proposing shape modifications. Further optimization of customers’ manufacturing processes is enabled by estimating manufacturing lead times, costs, and CO2 emissions of the analyzed parts.

![Asahi Kasei to invest in CASTOR Technologies. The Japanese chemistry group plans to integrate CASTOR’s software with its CAE service.](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/asahi-4-scaled.jpg)Position of CASTOR’s service and Asahi Kasei’s service in the parts manufacturing flow. Source: Asahi Kasei.

Asahi Kasei has been providing comprehensive, high-precision support for its customers’ product design and development through its CAE technical service focused on engineering plastics. CASTOR’s service for simple judgment of part formability and simulation of manufacturing costs is expected to enable an even swifter response to customer inquiries. Applying CASTOR’s software and service - prior to Asahi Kasei’s plastic CAE technical service - will contribute to automating more advanced simulations.

“Through this investment, we will further investigate the synergies between CASTOR’s software and Asahi Kasei’s CAE expertise,” said Yukihiro Bann, Senior General Manager for Business Strategy and Marketing, Mobility and Industrial SBU at Asahi Kasei Corp. “We aim to provide our customers with more advanced and automated real-time simulations, as well as to expand the range of technical services that both companies can offer.”

[In 2021, CASTOR closed a $3.5 million seed+ round](https://www.voxelmatters.com/castor-raises-3-5-million-seed-round-lead-by-xerox/), led by [Xerox, the global technology company](https://www.voxelmatters.directory/company/xerox/), and Spring Ventures, a Tel Aviv-based publicly-traded company.