Perfectly f**ked up
The Atomic Layers: S7E23 (00201)
Atomic Layer of the Day:
Today marks the third anniversary of the largest single delivery of 3D printers in the history of the Polish industry. On February 23, 2022, Sygnis—a Polish company that had been listed on the NewConnect stock exchange for just a month—announced the delivery of 1,960 3D printers and 16,400 spools of filament to one of Poland's largest educational companies, Moje Bambino.
The Flashforge 3D printers, primarily the Adventurer 3 and Adventurer 4 models, were distributed to Polish schools as part of the government’s Future Labs program.
At that time, Sygnis was at its peak. It was the brightest star in the Polish AM industry, outperforming even the most well-known Polish OEMs of that era—Zortrax and Sinterit.
Today, three years later, it has hit rock bottom.
Although it recorded a profit last quarter (for the first time in several years), its short-term liabilities and debts—to former employees, state institutions, and contractors—are so high that, without a miracle, repayment seems unlikely.
Oh, and by the way, Sygnis also dragged down Zmorph—which, alongside Zortrax and Sinterit, was one of the most recognizable Polish 3D printer brands worldwide. Or maybe it was Zmorph that dragged down Sygnis?
Either way, it was perfectly fucked up. HBO should make a series about it.
Sygnis was founded in 2012 by Maciej Misiura. In January 2014, he was joined by the current CEO and public face of the company—Andrzej Burgs. In its early years, Sygnis, leveraging strong connections with the University of Warsaw, where it was headquartered, implemented on universities and schools low-cost, desktop-grade 3D printers—primarily Chinese Flashforge.
But the ambitions were always much greater.
In 2015, Sygnis launched an R&D project focused on low-temperature glass 3D printing technology, which years later materialized as SYGLASS.
Meanwhile, in 2017, Misiura left Sygnis and moved into the space industry, now working at Creotech Instruments. With his departure, Andrzej Burgs took full control of the company.
Until then, Sygnis had been seen as nothing more than a trading company—a second-tier distributor of Flashforge and anything else it could push to customers.
But after 2017, a new vision emerged: Sygnis would transform into a "deep-tech" company specializing in additive manufacturing. Burgs relentlessly pushed this vision forward.
In reality, this boiled down to chasing EU grants and launching a series of more or less serious scientific projects.
Within the Polish AM industry, Sygnis earned the nickname: "Half company – half grant."
Between 2018 and 2020, for example, Sygnis reinvented itself as a biotech company, launching a subsidiary called Sygnis Bio Technologies, and trying to push CELLINK bioprinters to polish market. In fact, Sygnis established several subsidiaries, which from the outside looked like a serious capital group.
But for those in the 3D printing industry, it was always a bit of a joke—a pocket-sized corporation.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sygnis, as a trading company, made some money from the boom in 3D printers and the production of protective face shields and medical accessories. Burgs also got involved with Polish stock market sharks, and the idea of taking Sygnis public was born.
Since the company was too small and too poor to enter the main market (GPW) and didn’t quite qualify for the smaller NewConnect exchange either, a plan emerged for a SPAC merger via a company called Mode. Mode specialized in manufacturing devices for advertising photography, which might have been interesting, but not nearly as much as AM, which was riding a wave at the time.
So, at the end of 2021, Sygnis and Mode began the process of merging into a single entity, and on January 11, 2022, they officially debuted on NewConnect under a new identity. Just over a month later, Sygnis SA announced its biggest success in history—the sale of 1,960 Flashforge printers to a major educational company.
For context, the cooperation with Moje Bambino was carried out as part of the Future Labs project—an educational initiative by the Polish Ministry of Education and Science in collaboration with the GovTech Center at the Prime Minister’s Office. The goal was to support elementary schools in developing future skills among students in the so-called STEAM fields (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics).
As part of Future Labs, elementary schools received state financial support worth over one billion PLN, which allowed students access to 3D printers for the first time in history. Many companies made a lot of money from Future Labs. Even Zortrax, for whom it was the last good period after 2020.
For Sygnis, it was the deal of a lifetime. Its stock price hit an all-time high: 2.59 PLN (January 17, 2022). Just over half a euro per share.
In Q1 2022 alone, Sygnis recorded 12.7 million PLN (~3 million EUR) in sales revenue, a nearly +12% increase compared to all of 2021. Net profit was 3.4 million PLN (~0.8 million EUR), up +213% from 2021.
The company could have continued making money by selling Chinese 3D printers and running R&D projects. It could have had a very comfortable life—at least by Polish standards.
But as always in these cases, ego took over common sense.
I mentioned that Sygnis was a second-tier player before 2020. After 2020, it decided to become number one. And to prove it, it bought Zmorph.
Zmorph was a very well-known Polish 3D printer, famous for its multifunctionality. It combined 3D printing with CNC milling, laser engraving, and 3D printing with pastes, chocolate, and ceramics. A real multitool.
Cool, but quite expensive. And highly unprofitable to manufacture. Despite its great history, I’m not sure Zmorph was ever profitable? Over the years, the investment fund that owned it kept injecting cash, merging it with other struggling companies (like HBot3D), until it eventually created a Frankenstein’s monster—one that still looked presentable on the outside but had been dead inside for a long time.
And in July 2022, that investment fund dumped this rotten asset onto poor Burgs, who was actually happy, thinking he had gotten it for pennies. From that point on, it was all downhill.
In 2022, the company’s revenue was 28 million PLN. In 2023, it was 20 million PLN. And in 2024, just 9.9 million PLN.
The 2022 loss was -2.24 million PLN, entirely due to the acquisition of Zmorph (Sygnis itself was profitable). In 2023, the loss was -7.7 million PLN, and in 2024, -4.4 million PLN. The reduction in losses is due to deep restructuring within the company.
The short-term liabilities are the worst part. In 2023, they amounted to 13 million PLN. In 2024, they skyrocketed to 20.9 million PLN—including 1.4 million PLN in unpaid wages.
If you knew Polish and browsed Polish equivalents of Glassdoor (like GoWork), you’d come across some truly sad stories from numerous employees who claim they never received their overdue wages. Sygnis first disabled comments on LinkedIn posts (where former employees were publicly demanding their salaries), and eventually, it stopped posting there altogether.
And so, three years after the historic transaction for the Polish AM industry, Sygnis has reached this state. And the best part?
CEO Andrzej Burgs is still attending conferences and mentoring programs, teaching people about business. And Sygnis is still regarded by the Polish mainstream media as a model tech company.
Yeah…
Atomic Layer from the Past:
02-23-2022: 3D Systems acquired Kumovis and Titan Additive.
GET FREE HISTORY BOOK: ‘2012 in AM’
News & Gossip:
Formlabs and Henry Schein have partnered to make Henry Schein the preferred distributor of Formlabs dental 3D printing solutions in North America. This includes the new Form 4B and Form 4BL printers, post-processing tools, and resins.
NatureWorks has launched Ingeo 3D300, a high-speed PLA material for 3D printing. Designed for rapid production without additives, it maintains quality while reducing costs. With speeds up to 300 mm/s, minimal stringing, and strong bridging, it enhances efficiency.
And when speaking materials, I thought that maybe not everyone read my comment under one of the earlier posts. Too bad, because I sold interesting information for free... Recently I spoke with one of the largest filament manufacturers in Europe, who told me about the number of tons they produce annually and how much is produced in China. The information is confidential, so I will not share specific numbers, however, these three pieces of information are certain and can be shared "in an open channel":
3.1. there are fewer than ten "significant" filament manufacturers in Europe; there is a huge gap between the top three and the rest
3.2. compared to Europe, there is no "significant" filament manufacturer in the USA
3.3. the weakest filament producers in China produce as much as the best ones in Europe; the largest in China produce multiple times more than all European manufacturers combined.