DJI veteran Brett Wang launches Morpho UV printer, says pledges hit $7M

Why it matters

Morpho's early pledges show demand for production hardware priced for small studios and individual creators. Wang must now convert his engineering record into reliable software, ink handling and fulfillment at Kickstarter scale.

Mingyu "Brett" Wang launched Morpho's desktop UV printer on Kickstarter on August 21, 2026, and Morpho says the campaign drew more than $7 million in pledges from nearly 2,000 backers during its first 16 hours. The figures, published in a Morpho-supplied announcement, make the former DJI engineering executive's Kickstarter launch an immediate contender in a crowded class of crowdfunded machines for printing directly onto finished objects.

Wang arrived with a deeper hardware record than the usual Kickstarter founder. He earned engineering degrees from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he turned a GPS robotic water analyzer research project into Zhuhai Yunzhou Intelligence Technology in 2010. He joined DJI in 2012, founded its camera group and served as product manager for the Phantom 2 Vision and Phantom 2 Vision+. By 2015, Wang was leading a DJI research and development organization of more than 1,000 people, according to HKUST's alumni profile.

Morpho's About page identifies the business as a Shenzhen-based consumer technology company focused on bringing industrial UV-printing capabilities to the desktop. Wang has traced its origin to a much smaller production problem. While trying to make a customized print for his daughter's school presentation, he found professional UV printing equipment too large, expensive and maintenance-heavy for an ordinary creator, according to Morpho's July 2 product announcement. Morpho is his attempt to package the sensing, motion control and color-management work of an industrial printer into a machine aimed at Etsy sellers, small studios and makers.

Morpho is selling a small production line

The Morpho UV printer deposits and cures colored ink, white ink and varnish onto existing objects. That lets users decorate phone cases, acrylic sheets, wood, ceramic, metal and other surfaces without manufacturing the underlying object. Raised layers can add textures and relief effects that ordinary flat printing cannot produce.

Morpho offers two configurations. The standard F1080 model carries a $1,599 early-bird price and lists resolution of up to 1,440 DPI. The $2,799 Pro model uses an Epson i3200 printhead and lists up to 2,400 DPI. Morpho's specifications give both machines a 330 x 220 x 168 millimeter enclosed printing space, with an optional A3 bed extending the working area to 420 x 330 millimeters.

The distinction between those models matters. Morpho's announcement promotes relief printing up to 60 millimeters high, while its FAQ says regular relief is limited to 5 millimeters and lists the Pro configuration with a maximum embossment height of 60 millimeters. The FAQ says taller stacking or full-color 3D printing depends on slicing software, specialty inks, support materials and a more complete production workflow.

That qualification narrows Morpho's most eye-catching feature. Morpho says its software demo remains in production, with custom-jig creation and deletion still under development, according to the Morpho FAQ. A planned roll-to-roll attachment for UV direct-to-film printing is also in design and prototyping, according to the FAQ.

Tom's Hardware reported that Wang personally demonstrated Morpho at the Open Sauce technology show. Independent testing of production units will determine whether Morpho's alignment accuracy, print speed, maintenance requirements and color consistency match its specifications.

Morpho's strongest practical choices may prove less photogenic than its 60-millimeter relief claim. Its stereo-vision system uses dual 8-megapixel cameras and structured light to measure object height and contours. A refillable ink architecture allows official and compatible third-party inks, although Morpho warns in its ink documentation that outside formulations can cause clogging, curing problems and color shifts. Damage caused by third-party ink falls outside Morpho's standard warranty.

Morpho also markets its EcoInk formulation as low odor and suitable for enclosed creative spaces. The FAQ uses plainer language: UV printing can still produce odor, the machine should operate in a well-ventilated area, and low odor should never be read as odor-free.

$7 million measures demand, not delivery

Morpho's reported first 16 hours show substantial demand for another desktop fabrication tool. Using Morpho's rounded totals, pledges averaged roughly $3,500 per backer. That is above the early-bird price of either base printer, suggesting that the campaign includes premium bundles, accessories or multiple-unit pledges.

Crowdfunding has already demonstrated that desktop UV printing can attract hardware-scale money. The eufyMake E1 campaign collected $46.76 million from 17,822 backers in 2025. Morpho is entering alongside eufyMake, LONGER, xTool, and HeyGears, each trying to turn equipment once associated with print shops into a prosumer appliance.

Morpho's campaign total is crowdfunding rather than equity financing, and pledged money is collected only after a successful campaign ends. Kickstarter tells backers that the platform is not a store and rewards are not guaranteed. That warning has particular weight for complex inkjet hardware, where calibration, consumables, software and fulfillment must all work together after manufacturing scales.

Morpho is targeting initial shipments in the fourth quarter of 2026. The schedule gives Wang only a few months to turn demonstration units into repeatable production while completing the custom-jig features and roll-to-roll attachment described in Morpho's documentation. His DJI background helps explain why backers are willing to fund that effort before delivery.

"At Morpho, we address challenges directly and act quickly on feedback from our community," Wang said in the launch announcement. The campaign has supplied the demand signal. Wang's harder task starts with converting a surge of pledges into printers that can produce saleable objects every day without demanding an industrial technician beside them.