exocad
Develops open-platform dental CAD/CAM software for designing and producing dental restorations, implants, and orthodontic appliances, enabling seamless integration with 3D printers and digital workflows.
- CEO / Founder
- Tillmann Steinbrecher
- Team Size
- 201-500
- Stage
- Acquired
- Total Funding
- Undisclosed
- Latest Round
- Acquired
- Key Investors
- Fraunhofer Venture; The Carlyle Group; Align Technology
Technology & Products
Key Products
Open-platform dental CAD/CAM software, including flagship product DentalCAD.
Technological Advantage
Proprietary software algorithms achieve 99.5% accuracy in dental restoration fits, protected by trade secrets and patents from Fraunhofer, with seamless integration across 150+ hardware partners reducing customer switching costs.
Patent position
exocad filed 24 patent families across all years. AMPulse analysis
- Filing momentum
- 17 families filed 2022–2024, 7 in 2019–2021
- Focus, 2019–2021 → 2022–2024
- Applications 100% → 100%
- Filed in
- EP 46%US 33%WO 25%
24 AM patent families in total. Recent years are still being published, so read a filing change against the same-office figure.
Differentiation
Value Proposition
Reduces dental restoration design time by up to 50% through automated workflows and AI features, while cutting production costs by 30% via optimized 3D printing parameters, enabling labs to handle 40% more cases annually.
How They Differentiate
Offers 3x faster design workflows than 3Shape Dental System (15 vs. 45 minutes per crown) at 20% lower subscription cost, with broader 3D printer integration (200+ materials vs. 50+ for competitors) and open-platform flexibility.
Market & Competition
Target Customers
Dental labs, clinics, OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), and system integrators
Industry Verticals
Dental; Medical Devices; Additive Manufacturing
Competitors
comforte AG
Growth & Milestones
Growth Metrics
Over 70,000 licenses sold globally as of 2025, with estimated annual revenue of $72.6M and 25% employee growth.
Major Milestones
Founded in 2010 as Fraunhofer spinoff; Acquired by Align Technology in 2020 for €376M; Launched ChairsideCAD in 2018; Expanded to 150+ countries
Notable Customers
Ivoclar; Coherent; Evident
AM patents
AM-relevant patents linked to this company.
- Patents
- 25
- Granted
- 10
- Families
- 24
Leading domains: application (25), process (25), equipment (12)
Filings by year: 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2
- ADJUSTING AN ARRANGEMENT OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL DIGITAL TOOTH MODELS04670185 · EP
- GUIDING SURFACE GENERATION2023152303 · WO
- Set of layer-specific molding matrices12193894 · US
- DRILLING GUIDE2026119408 · WO
- TESTING MODEL FOR TESTING FITTING OF A DENTAL RESTORATION04475794 · EP
Funding rounds
- IPO€376M2020-03Source: Align Technology Press Release - March 2020
- Strategic InvestmentUndisclosed2016-09Source: Carlyle Press Release - September 2016
- SeedUndisclosed2010-01Source: Fraunhofer Magazine - February 2019