Airbus partners with LM Industries on Neorizon, a new startup joint venture to commercialize new technologies at a faster pace

The current modes of transportation are not sustainable and do not match up with rapidly changing consumer preferences. To address the increasing customers’ demand, French aviation giant Airbus announced it’s joining forces with LM Industries on Neorizon, a new startup joint venture intended to provide disruptive and innovative products with an initial focus on local mobility and autonomy. With Neorizon, the two companies will be able to work together and commercialize new technologies at a faster pace.

The Neorizon microfactory will build products at unprecedented speeds through the combination of co-creation and cutting-edge technology. Its efficiency will allow products to be iterated regularly to match customers’ needs and preferences.

LM Industries is the first company to utilize Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM), as evidenced when it debuted the world’s first 3D-printed car, the Strati, in September of 2014. Currently the Company is working on its latest creation, Olli, an urban speed, cognitive, electric, shuttle.

“Every local and state government is faced with challenges such as rapid urbanization and congestion, inefficient and pollutive transport, and ever-changing and evolving technology,” said Jay Rogers, CEO and founder of LM Industries. “Current transport infrastructure and existing mass manufacturing are too inflexible and capital intense to service evolving technology trends and changing consumer demands.”

Neorizon brings together the flexibility of professional digital manufacturing and the expertise of one of the world’s leading aerospace and defense companies in a venture unlike any other to answer the globe’s most pressing mobility and manufacturing concerns. With access to the technological innovations of both partners – such as LMI’s open, AV shuttle platform and Airbus’ positioning system for drones enabling easier and safer take-off and landing – Neorizon employees and customers can imagine and create solutions unforeseen to anyone else such as urban cargo.

“We’ve been working with LM Industries’ team at Local Motors since early 2016 when we realized the unique value proposition surrounding direct digital manufacturing and open-source design,” says Peter Weckesser, Digital Transformation Officer of Airbus Defence and Space. “Both parties recognized the commercial opportunities for pooling resources and expertise, specifically combining LM Industries’ digital manufacturing with Airbus’ materials expertise, metal 3D printing and additive manufacturing, and prototyping and serial production capabilities.”

Neorizon’s headquarters and microfactory will be built at Airbus’ Ludwig-Bölkow-Campus near Munich, Germany in conjunction with an Innovation Campus including a new Technical University of Munich Campus. The microfactory will bring 150-200 high tech jobs along with design and engineering apprenticeship opportunities for those still pursuing or without completed formal education. To facilitate consistent engagement and brainstorms, the microfactory comes complete with a built gathering space and an “innovation coffee shop” for Industry 4.0 leadership.

“Together with our employees, shareholders, and leading mobility and innovation companies in Germany and abroad, we will address local mobility issues by rapidly producing concepts, prototypes, products, and solutions, in collaboration with the local technological ecosystem,” said Benjamin Queisser, Neorizon CEO.