3Shape

3Shape A/S is a privately held Danish medical-technology company headquartered in Copenhagen that specializes in developing and manufacturing 3D scanners and CAD/CAM software solutions for dental and audiology professionals. It was founded in 2000 by Tais Clausen (an engineer) and Nikolaj Deichmann (a business major), who met as Danish university students and decided to pursue a business idea around 3D imaging. Private equity fund EQT has been a shareholder since 2022, and the company's current CEO is Jacob Paulsen, while the co-founders remain central figures.

The company employs more than 2,200 professionals serving customers in 100+ countries, with its headquarters in Denmark and production facilities and offices in China, Europe, Latin America and the USA. Its origins are in audiology: its first solutions, ShellDesigner and H100, launched in 2001 for the hearing-aid sector, followed by its first dental lab solution, the D200 scanner, in 2005.

3Shape's flagship products include the TRIOS series of intraoral scanners, which enable digital impressions for crowns, implants, clear aligners and printed dentures, alongside CAD software and AI-powered workflows for dental laboratories. The TRIOS intraoral scanner, launched in 2011, was the first on the market to enable powder-free intraoral scanning. The TRIOS line is widely recognized — TRIOS 5 Wireless won the Cellerant Best of Class Technology Award for intraoral scanners for the eleventh consecutive year, making 3Shape the company with the most Cellerant awards in dentistry history. Given this focus on digital scanning, CAD/CAM and AI-driven dental workflows, innovation in this space is directly core to 3Shape's business.