The serial entrepreneur Éder Medeiros, known in the market for having founded Melhor Envio, a startup acquired by Locaweb for R$ 83 million in 2020, has just allocated R$ 1 million of his own investment to launch Maker Market, a platform aimed at strengthening national production, reducing dependence on imports, and encouraging the Brazilian industry through decentralized 3D printing technology.
The project proposes a new infrastructure for digital manufacturing, connected, on-demand, and accessible to any region of Brazil. The Maker Market’s proposal is to connect three profiles: 3D model designers, 3D printer owners (makers), and e-commerce retailers.
“Our platform was born with the perception that there are many idle 3D printers with unutilized productive capacity that could be useful to someone, producing items focused on e-commerce. Increasing the utilization of these equipment means avoiding excessive imports in our market. Additionally, we aim to reduce the price charged for manufactured items, making the final value proportional to the time and material used in their production,” comments Éder Medeiros, CEO, and founder of Maker Market.
Based in Pelotas Parque Tecnológico (PPT), Maker Market was created with the purpose of contributing to the country’s reindustrialization, becoming the on-demand production infrastructure for the next generation of makers, designers, and retailers.
How it works in practice
The Maker Market allows any online store to sell physical products without the need for inventory, using a local and automated production network. When a sale occurs, the system triggers the nearest maker to print and deliver the product on demand.
The idea behind the collaboration network is for the store owner to take pictures of the printed products, within a catalog with about 10 thousand items, their descriptions, and place them in their online store. “If the seller has a decoration business, for example, they will choose decoration items from our catalog, insert them into their e-commerce, and choose the price with the margin they want. And as each sale is made, they can open a print request within our platform. Thus, this print request will be directed to the most suitable makers for the buyer,” explains Medeiros.
“The first maker to accept this request will print the respective product, package it, attach a shipping label from our partners at Melhor Envio, and post it for delivery to the final buyer,” adds the CEO of Maker Market.
The company will also work on sustainability fronts, developing processes for the reuse of waste generated in the 3D printing chain — such as supports and production failures — promoting efficiency and alignment with circular economy principles.
In addition to the platform, the startup will build a 500 m² research and development facility, where over 50 employees — with at least 30 researchers — will lead projects in materials, hardware, and advanced 3D printing processes. One focus is on developing high-fidelity colored resins, currently nonexistent in Brazil, with the potential to replace imported inputs and enable local production with industrial finishing.
Focus on agribusiness and industrial sectors
Another strategic focus of the company will be the development of affordable metal printing technologies, aimed at the production of technical parts on demand. The proposal includes applications in agribusiness — such as replacement parts for tractors and machinery — but also serves industrial sectors facing long lead times, component obsolescence, or customization needs.
With this technology, it will be possible to manufacture custom-made items nationally that currently depend on imports or large minimum volumes. The facility will be the first of its kind in Brazil dedicated to metal additive manufacturing aimed at the end customer (B2C).
“We want to connect makers spread throughout the country, individuals with 3D printers, and in the future, the idea is to have at least one user in every city in the country who can print. All connected on our website, which will also feature a network of designers who will create the 3D modeling of products, as well as a network of retailers. This is how the future will be printed,” concludes Medeiros.
A startup already has institutional support from UFPEL, through the Conectar incubator, the Superintendence of Innovation and Interinstitutional Development – INOVA, the Tecnosul Scientific and Technological Park, and other agents in the local innovation ecosystem. It also maintains dialogue with industrial and financial entities to enable its plant and national expansion, as well as seeks connections with public initiatives for funding to accelerate its technological development and increase its impact.
