Consideration for the acquisition, which was completed yesterday (14 March), is $4m (£3.06m) in cash, which has been paid in full.
The iC3D software suite generates photorealistic 3D virtual mock-ups on the fly, allowing cartons, labels, flexibles, bottles, shrink sleeves, POS displays, and in-store visualisation to be accurately rendered for design verification and e-commerce applications.
Additionally, iC3D offers a large library of modelling templates for digital packaging design and prototyping as well as an online viewing platform which allows designers, brands, and printers to collaborate on new designs with accurate real-time 3D rendering.
Hybrid Software Group CEO Mike Rottenborn said: “3D and additive manufacturing applications are one of our fastest-growing market segments for printhead drive electronics and software, but visualisation of packaging designs in 3D was a gap in our technology portfolio.
“The acquisition of iC3D strengthens our 3D offering and closes the loop between the design of high-end labels and packaging and industrial print manufacturing. We already have an integration of iC3D in our Packz and Cloudflow software with a substantial installed base of users that have licensed the iC3D option and we look forward to broader integration of iC3D in our Digital Front Ends and other software products.”
Creative Edge Software was the recent subject of a Printweek Best of British feature.
CEO Trevor Haworth said: “We formed Creative Edge Software in 2013 to develop 3D software that would give packaging and label designers an all-in-one product to replace the many partial rendering solutions in use at the time.
“Since then, iC3D has become the product of choice for many leading brands. Almost since the start, Hybrid Software became one of our largest value-added resellers by combining iC3D’s fast visualisation capabilities with their range of packaging production software products, and a close relationship between the development teams was established.
“Our acquisition by Hybrid Software Group is the logical step in co-development of some exciting new products for the packaging market and I look forward to our expansion under the additional resources provided by such a successful group.”
Global Graphics acquired Hybrid Software in early 2021, and in October it opted to change its name to Hybrid Software Group to better reflect the nature of its business.
Shortly afterwards the group then acquired Germany’s ColorLogic, which specialises in colour profiling and conversion software, to boost its capabilities in ‘beyond CMYK’ applications.
