Video: Desktop Metal charts a new course out of insolvency, toward profitability

Now that New York investor Arc Public Benefit Corp. has bailed the 3D printing system and software maker out of bankruptcy, Editor-in-Chief Robert Schoenberger landed an interview with Arc CEO Bryan Wisk, who details Arc's strategy for a new lease on life and success for Desktop Metal.

Scott Achelpohl

Sept. 25, 2025

What you'll learn:

Desktop Metal hopes to shift focus to customer collaboration to drive growth and innovation.
The additive pinoneer will target niche markets such as aerospace, medical and energy storage.
Profitability is expected to come from services and materials, not just machine sales, as equipment-only manufacturers continue to struggle.

Upheaval in the additive manufacturing marketplace in recent years dropped Desktop Metal at Bryan Wisk’s feet this month, and Wisk's strategy for success going forward is to keep that chaos at bay, the Arc Public Benefit Corp. CEO said in an interview.

“There’s only one word at DM right now internally; it’s focus,” Wisk told Smart Industry and IndustryWeek Editor-in-Chief Robert Schoenberger. “We’re not a distressed debt investor or private equity. We’re really deep-growth investors, and we’re looking to focus on the core technologies that we bought.”

Arc, a New York investor, earlier this month bought Desktop Metal out of bankruptcy. It was an opportunity born from turmoil.

Podcast: Additive manufacturing and bridging the gap between prototypes and production

The company that pioneered several metal additive manufacturing applications went public in 2021 through a special-purpose acquisition corporation (the same sorts of deals that funded dozens of now-defunct electric vehicle companies around the same time).

Click for more from Robert and the back story of Desktop Metal and the additive marketplace.

About the Author

Scott Achelpohl

I've come to Smart Industry after stints in business-to-business journalism covering U.S. trucking and transportation for FleetOwner, a sister website and magazine of SI’s at Endeavor Business Media, and branches of the U.S. military for Navy League of the United States. I'm a graduate of the University of Kansas and the William Allen White School of Journalism with many years of media experience inside and outside B2B journalism. I'm a wordsmith by nature, and I edit Smart Industry and report and write all kinds of news and interactive media on the digital transformation of manufacturing.