Breaking the bottleneck

If you are a lab technician, you will know that situation all too well: sitting in a dimly lit room, nudging splint models on CAD software for hours. Every click is repetitive. Every adjustment feels the same. Instead of working on something more complex and rewarding, or even enjoying time with colleagues after work, you are stuck with endless trays, splints, and models.

For decades, this has been the reality across both the hearing and dental industries. Skilled technicians have been the backbone of custom-fit work, with every denture, crown, or hearing aid meticulously designed by hand. But this also created a bottleneck. Each case could take up to half an hour, leaving labs with backlogs, stretched capacity, and technicians bogged down in repetitive work. Businesses struggled to keep up with demand.

H3D is breaking that bottleneck with AI.

Proven success in hearing

Originating out of Swinburne University, H3D began with a bold idea: that the diligent CAD work could be automated without sacrificing accuracy or quality. The journey started in 2018 when the co-founder and CTO, Dr Philip Kinsella, developed a fully automated design platform that combined AI, 3D geometry algorithms and cloud-based infrastructure into a seamless workflow.

The hearing industry was the first to see its impact. With the global audio CAD market valued at 200 million dollars, H3D quickly established itself as a leader in automation. Today, three of the big five hearing aid manufacturers and the majority of earmould labs worldwide use H3D technology daily in their production.

Customer feedback has reinforced this success. H3D’s ability to reflect each provider’s unique style through tailored templates has been highly valued by partners. Labs are now processing hundreds of cases in minutes with higher consistency, creating efficiency at scale and allowing the labs to respond to market demands as this ever-growing sector evolves.

H3D does not stop at scale and acceptance rate, with its platform enabling same-day fitting. A live pilot driven by Demant at a clinic in Copenhagen has proven the possibility to produce custom-fit earmoulds in a single day, with ear impression, design, and 3D printing, all done within the same clinical visit. This achievement represents a significant breakthrough in how personalised hearing products are delivered, bringing advanced manufacturing closer to patient care. As Demant shared, “together we’re creating a more agile and personalised approach to hearing care, with faster turnaround times and enhanced product customisation - all within the clinical setting.”

Expanding access with smartphone 3D scanning

H3D continues to innovate within its audio capabilities. It has recently launched a unique phone scanning solution that utilises cutting-edge computer vision, AI, and AR technologies to capture an accurate 3D ear scan using just a smartphone camera.

This innovation unlocks a custom-fit category for consumer audio brands and hearing protection manufacturers, removing the need for traditional impression material or expensive scanning equipment.

The technology does more than increase efficiency. It creates a richer and more engaging experience, allowing consumers to see their own 3D scans and directly participate in the process.

A promising future in dental

Building on this success,H3D has recently turned its attention to dental labs to automate the design of splints, models and trays. These dental products consume many repetitive hours of technician time; now they can be completed automatically in minutes with up to 95% first-time approval.

The benefits have been immediate. Dental labs adopting the platform report faster turnaround, improved consistency, and new capacity to take on more complex cases. Skilled technicians are freed from repetitive work, shifting their attention to higher-value tasks. For labs, this shift opens new capacity, strengthens their margins, and allows them to meet demand that would otherwise go unserved.

“H3D has streamlined our workflows and increased our productivity. This allows us to give our customers the high-end customer service they deserve,” notes Vince Sorrentino, General Manager of SparxLab.

Early adopters such as Ortodonzia Estense also highlight the growing momentum behind H3D: “We are proud to be a development partner of H3D, because we believe that AI is not just an add-on – it’s the next step in digital orthodontics”.

H3D’s roadmap now goes further, with development underway to automate more complex products such as dentures and crowns. These remain some of the most labour-intensive areas of dental CAD, and automating them would unlock another level of efficiency and scale for the industry.

With the global Dental CAD market estimated at 3 billion dollars and growing at 9 per cent annually, the opportunity is significant. Having already proven its value in splints, models, and trays, H3D’s expansion into dentures and crowns sets the stage for an even deeper transformation in the sector.

Looking ahead

At Significant Ventures, we back innovation in critical technologies that have the power to redefine industries and set new global standards. H3D exemplifies that ambition.

We were among the earliest to support the company and are proud to have led its recent Series A round. Our partnership has supported the team as they have scaled from early traction in audio to their current expansion into dental, a natural next step for their category-defining technology.

“H3D brings together world-class AI technology and a clear vision to transform industries,”

said Michele Troni, Chief Investment Officer at Significant Ventures and H3D Board Director.

With Series A funding, H3D is expanding its R&D and advancing its roadmap into more complex dental applications while also accelerating the adoption of its existing products in dental labs globally, particularly across Europe, the United States, and Australia. The company is strengthening its role as a category leader in AI-driven digital manufacturing and proving that automation can remove the most persistent bottlenecks in custom-fit production.

As CEO, Iain McLeod explains,

“Our mission is simple: make dental and hearing labs produce faster, cheaper and more consistently through high-volume AI automation, without compromising on quality or product identity”.

H3D is more than a technology company. It has already reshaped one global industry and is now poised to transform another, delivering real value for consumers and patients receiving dental and hearing care.  

If you are interested in partnering with or investing in companies pioneering critical technologies like H3D, please get in touch.