Proto Labs Inc (PRLB) Business

Item 1. Business

Overview

Proto Labs, Inc. was incorporated in Minnesota in 1999. The terms “Proto Labs,” "Protolabs," the “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” as used herein refer to the business and operations of Proto Labs, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

We are the world’s fastest manufacturing service enabling companies across every industry to streamline production of quality parts throughout the entire product life cycle. From custom prototyping to end-use production, we support product developers, engineers, and supply chain teams along every phase of their manufacturing journey. Founded in 1999, we radically reduced the time needed to produce injection molding prototypes through complex software that automated the manufacturing process. Over the next two decades, we added computer numerical control ("CNC") machining, 3D printing, and sheet metal fabrication, and later acquired 3D Hubs, Inc ("Hubs") and launched the Protolabs Network, our global network of manufacturing partners (“MPs”). Our 25+ years of growth while expanding capabilities provide customers with the best digital manufacturing experience in the industry.

Our vision is accelerating innovation by revolutionizing manufacturing. Our mission is to shape the future by bringing customer ideas to life across every stage of the product life cycle. We accomplish this by offering a variety of manufacturing capabilities fulfilled through a combination of owned manufacturing factories ("Factory") and a worldwide network of premium manufacturing partners ("Network").

Our automated quoting and manufacturing systems are highly integrated with our manufacturing and fulfillment systems, which allow us to offer a vast array of manufacturing technologies in a variety of materials across a continuum of lead times and prices. Protolabs uses artificial intelligence (“AI”) in a number of different ways to improve our efficiency and the value we offer to customers, including: intelligent pricing and sourcing algorithms, automated quality inspection in injection molding, toolpath verification in CNC machining, software development, and various other AI end use cases. In the age of AI, we are well-positioned with our long history of leveraging technology to solve legacy manufacturing challenges and are deploying AI to power how we drive innovation to better serve our customers. AI is enabling us to move faster than ever before and continue to scale our business efficiently. Our highly differentiated manufacturing offerings are backed by an intellectual property portfolio of 60 patents, and over 60 additional trade secrets. Our patents are in the areas of methods of manufacturing (both subtractive and additive), software supporting methods of manufacturing, and pricing of parts.

Our technology-enabled digital engineering and manufacturing applications enable us to produce commercial-grade prototype and production plastic, metal, and liquid silicone rubber parts in as fast as one day. Since our inception, we have manufactured over 700 million parts, and served over 300,000 customers, including 95% of Fortune 100 companies in key industries.

Our customers engage with us throughout the lifecycle of their product, from early-stage prototyping through end-use production to end-of-life replacement and other parts needs that we fulfill through a combination of factories and MPs. Through our Factory operations, we manufacture prototype and low volume production parts for companies worldwide, who are under increasing pressure to bring their finished products to market faster than their competition. We utilize injection molding, CNC machining, 3D printing and sheet metal fabrication to manufacture custom parts for our customers. For most of our offerings, our proprietary technology eliminates most of the time-consuming and expensive skilled labor conventionally required to quote and manufacture parts. Using our technology, we have analyzed over 18 million unique part designs since inception.

Through the acquisition of Hubs (formerly 3D Hubs, Inc., recently rebranded to Protolabs Network) in 2021, we provide customers access to a global network of premium manufacturing partners who reside across North America, Europe and Asia. The manufacturing partner network, complements our in-house manufacturing, enabling us to significantly increase the size, complexity, breadth of manufacturing processes, lead times and prices of the parts we produce. Our hybrid manufacturing model (Factory and Network) integrates the speed, quality, and reliability of our in‑house manufacturing capabilities with the expanded capacity, specialized processes, and broader price and lead‑time flexibility offered by our MP network. This combined model enhances the value we deliver to customers and serves as a meaningful competitive differentiator in the digital manufacturing market.

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Our customers conduct nearly all their business with us over the Internet. We target our products to the millions of product developers and engineers who use three-dimensional computer-aided design (3D CAD) software to design products across a diverse range of end-markets, to the procurement and supply chain professionals seeking to easily and efficiently source custom parts on-demand, and to a wide variety of customers seeking to purchase custom parts. We serve over 48,000 customers annually, ranging from the largest and most innovative organizations in the world, to entrepreneurs and small business owners. We believe our use of advanced technology enables us to offer significant advantages at competitive prices to many customers and is the primary reason we have become a leading supplier of custom parts.

We have established our operations in the United States and Europe. On October 21, 2024, the Company's board of directors approved a plan related to the Company's manufacturing facilities in Germany. The plan included the closure of the Company's prototype injection molding manufacturing facility in Eschenlohe, Germany, and the discontinuation of Direct Metal Laser Sintering 3D printing services through its 3D printing facility in Putzbrunn, Germany. The Company substantially completed the plan in the fourth quarter of 2025. The Company continues to offer all of its manufacturing services to customers across Europe, including injection molding and metal 3D printing through internal manufacturing facilities and a network of manufacturing partners.

We help customers accelerate product development and innovation by providing an efficient way for them to procure high-quality custom parts at competitive prices. We believe low-volume custom parts manufacturing has historically been an underserved market due to the inefficiencies inherent in the quotation, equipment set-up and non-recurring engineering processes required to produce custom parts. We also believe that there are a multitude of factors that are valuable to our customers that our offer uniquely provides, including speed to market, supply chain flexibility, access to a broad range of manufacturing capabilities and price & lead time options, reduced supply chain waste, and efficient sourcing of custom parts. Our customers typically partner with us for a variety of reasons, including:

•they need a prototype to confirm the form, fit and function of one or more components of a product under development;

•they need an initial supply of parts to support pilot production for testing of a product;

•they need an initial supply of parts to support production while their tools for a high-volume production mold are prepared;

•they need to meet their customers' variable demand for parts in a competitive timeframe;

•they need production parts for a product that will only be produced in a limited quantity and/or is highly customized;

•they need to support end-of-life production in a cost-effective manner;

•they want to avoid minimum order quantities or costs related to storing excess inventory;

•they need access to diverse, cost competitive manufacturing capabilities and value the convenience of working with a single supplier to match parts to the best producer;

•they need low- to mid-volumes of parts on an irregular schedule and prefer to order on-demand; or

•they want to consolidate vendors (even to one single-source supplier) of custom parts across their engineering and procurement functions.

In each of these instances, we believe our solution provides product developers, engineers, production buyers and other customers with an exceptional combination of speed, quality, competitive pricing, ease of use and reliability that they typically cannot find among conventional custom parts manufacturers, small and mid-sized regional/local manufacturers, or other competitors in our industry. Our technology enables us to ship parts not only with industry-leading speed as soon as the same day after receipt of a customer’s design submission, but also provides the flexibility to produce for our customers custom parts in the manufacturing processes and materials they want, with the flexible lead time they choose, at competitive prices.

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Our primary manufacturing service lines are Injection Molding, CNC Machining, 3D Printing, and Sheet Metal. We continually seek to expand the range of size and geometric complexity of the parts we can make or source with these processes, to extend the variety of materials we are able to support, and to identify additional manufacturing processes to which we can apply our technology or incorporate into our manufacturing network in order to better serve the evolving preferences and needs of our customers. With the addition of the Protolabs Network in 2021, our global network of premium MPs significantly expands the breadth and depth of our manufacturing capabilities, enabling us to offer customers a wider variety of lead times and pricing options, and an expanded envelope of parts (manufacturing process, complexity, size, material, finishing options, etc.).

Industry Overview

We pioneered the digital manufacturing industry when we were founded in 1999 and have been recognized as a catalyst for the next generation wave of Industry 4.0. Traditional manufacturing exists as a fragmented collage of niche producers operating in disparate capacities along the supply chain. We strive to be the partner of choice for our customers, with a vast array of manufacturing solutions. We do this by providing our customers an eCommerce experience where they can upload their part design and receive a rapid (or instantaneous) quote coupled with design for manufacturability feedback, evaluate the costs and lead times for a variety of manufacturing processes, and easily order parts at quantities 1 to 1 million-plus. From the time they upload their design, we maintain a continuous digital thread of the part, which enables us to be nimble and adapt to the changing needs of our customer.

We believe there are trends disrupting the manufacturing industry today, including:

•Labor Shortages – Ongoing workforce shortages in manufacturing are accelerating investment in automation and smart-factory technologies. Protolabs is well ahead of this shift, leveraging automated digital manufacturing processes since 1999 to reduce labor dependency and increase efficiency.

•Vendor Consolidation – Businesses are increasingly consolidating vendors to streamline operations, maintain quality control, and reduce costs. Protolabs offers a wide range of manufacturing services so customers can source most of their custom parts needs, delivering to our customers improved speed, agility, cost-efficiency, and quality.

•Dynamic and Unpredictable Trade Policy Environment – Rapidly evolving trade policies and geopolitical uncertainty are driving companies to diversify and localize supply chains. Protolabs' manufacturing presence in the U.S. and Europe provides customers with resilient domestic sourcing options.

•SKU Proliferation – Increasing customization and variety in products is expanding SKU counts across industries, increasing demand for flexible, small‑batch, and rapid-turn manufacturing—capabilities core to Protolabs’ model.

•Shorter Product Life Cycles – As product life cycles compress, companies require faster prototyping, quicker design iteration, and agile low‑volume production. Protolabs’ digital manufacturing platform is purpose-built for these accelerated timelines.

The impacts of these trends include increased pressure on manufacturers to operate with greater agility, resilience, and efficiency as they navigate workforce constraints, supplier rationalization, shifting global trade dynamics, expanding product complexity, and faster innovation cycles. These forces are driving demand for partners who can provide rapid turnaround, flexible production capacity, digital solutions, and broad capabilities without the long lead times, capital commitments, or volume requirements of traditional manufacturing. Protolabs’ digital thread makes us ideally suited to solve these challenges for many manufacturing companies by offering world‑class speed, no minimum order quantities, broad manufacturing capabilities, and flexibility to adapt to demand volatility.

Our Process

Our digital thread, which is the virtual representation of the part created by our proprietary software and mirrors the physical manufacturing process, has enabled us to reinvent manufacturing. Within our factories, our digital thread ties together each aspect of the online ordering and manufacturing processes, including 3D CAD modeling and visualization tools, proprietary design for manufacturability analysis (DFM), computer aided manufacturing, the manufacturing equipment, and the shop floor data collection systems. Digital manufacturing, and the addition of the digital thread, results in automation that reduces manufacturing and labor costs and increases throughput, enabling us to differentiate ourselves as one of the world’s fastest and most effective solutions for prototype and low volume production use cases.

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Our technology allows us to manufacture a broad range of parts and products, across multiple industries and processes and enables us to serve a diverse set of customers. We currently serve all manufacturing industry verticals, with our top industries being medical and healthcare, computer electronics, industrial machinery and equipment, aerospace and automotive.

Customer Order

The customer order process begins when the customer uploads one or more 3D CAD models representing the desired part geometry through our web-based customer interfaces. Our websites provide a straightforward means for our customers to submit 3D CAD part designs, including managing projects with multi-part orders, across multiple services and capabilities. Our proprietary software uses complex algorithms to analyze the 3D CAD geometry, analyze its DFM and support the creation of an interactive, web-based quotation containing pricing and manufacturability information. The artificial intelligence and machine learning provided by each analysis allows us to continually improve our DFM technology. When the analysis is complete, a link to the quotation is then e-mailed to the customer, who can access the quotation, change a variety of order parameters, and instantly see the effect on price before finalizing the order.

Digital Manufacturing Process

Our internal manufacturing operations produce parts in-house, while our outsourced manufacturing operations automatically route the parts for production by a global network of premium manufacturing partners. Our proprietary software and business process automates the non-recurring manufacturing engineering in many of our services, removing time and cost from the manufacture of the custom part. With the integrated digital thread, data is shared through the continuum of the manufacturing process, from product conception and design upload to manufacturing, inspection and delivery. This ensures consistency, quality, and a high degree of automation. As a result of this automation, we are able to ship parts to customers with industry leading speed at scale. For parts produced by the manufacturing network, our proprietary software automatically routes the parts to the right manufacturing partner within minutes using an AI-infused smart order routing system built on machine learning data of millions of parts produced.

Our Growth Strategy

We currently operate in a global custom contract manufacturing market which is a form of outsourcing where companies enter into an arrangement or formal agreement with another company or individual for the manufacture of complete parts, products, or components. Since our inception, we have focused on areas where we could automate the manufacturing process via our digital model and we positioned ourselves to avoid routine, low margin, high-volume commoditized manufacturing. Our initial focus was on prototypes and simple parts and have added complexity over time, as well as adding production to our offer. We have added additional manufacturing services and expanded those services to meet the needs of our customers, which has ultimately driven our growth.

Initially, we focused on speed, reliability and quality as key components of our differentiation, and customers used us for production where there was a good fit. We have evolved from serving primarily fast response prototypes to broader customer use cases including higher requirements, such as a tighter tolerance, broader ranges of lead times and price points, and quality and process documentation to support production needs. We have further expanded our offering through Protolabs Network to be able to serve our customers more holistically, augmenting our Factory manufacturing capabilities with a network of premium manufacturing partners to serve customer needs outside of our internal manufacturing capabilities. Our goal is to be the fastest, most reliable, and most comprehensive provider of custom parts in our four manufacturing services. Combining our unprecedented in-house manufacturing with the broad capabilities and wide variety of price and lead time options through our manufacturing network expands our ability to provide value to our customers and differentiates us from competitors.

Protolabs’ long-term strategy is to serve customers across the entire lifecycle of a part—from prototype through production. To support this long-term strategy, we have aligned the organization around four strategic pillars:

•Elevate Customer Experience – remove friction across the customer journey to deliver a best-in-class experience and increase revenue per customer. Enable employees to serve customers more efficiently, driving faster growth.

•Accelerate Innovation – reaccelerate innovation across core manufacturing services to drive outsized growth and an accelerated pace of new releases. Leverage differentiated IP and deep manufacturing & engineering talent.

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•Expand Production – take a deliberate, customer-led approach—prioritizing the right customers, applications, and capabilities. Begin with most strategic customers and scale over time.

•Drive Operational Efficiency – expand Factory and Network gross margins and capture operating expense leverage via efficiencies and productivity. Reallocate resources and funds to invest in the highest-priority growth initiatives.

Competition

The domestic and global markets for custom parts manufacturing are highly fragmented and subject to rapid and significant technological change. Our potential competitors include:

•Other custom parts manufacturers. There are thousands of alternative manufacturing machine shops, injection molding suppliers, sheet metal fabricators, and 3D printing service bureaus and vendors worldwide. While most of these manufacturers are local and regional small and mid-sized businesses, they range from very small specialty shops to large, high-volume production manufacturers.

•Brokers. There are an increasing number of digital brokers that offer a network of manufacturers, generally a subset of the other custom parts manufacturers described above, that can offer a diverse range of capabilities, capacity, competitive pricing and desired lead times to meet customer demand.

•Captive in-house manufacturing. Many larger companies undertaking product development have established 3D printing, CNC machining, injection molding, or sheet metal capabilities internally to support prototyping or manufacturing requirements of their product developers and engineers.

We believe that the key competitive factors in our industry include:

•Speed: turnaround time for quotations and parts;

•Reliability: reliable delivery and predictable lead times;

•Quality: dimensional accuracy, surface finish, color and cleanliness;

•Service: overall customer experience, from web interface to post-sales support;

•Capability: range of part sizes and dimensional complexities/tolerances supported, variety of manufacturing processes offered, materials supported and post-processing provided;

•Scale: ability to support thousands of part designs in parallel and increase production volumes while maintaining efficiency, quality, and cost-effectiveness;

•Capacity: ability to manage peaks in demand with no or very little disruption to lead times and quality, no minimum order quantity requirements; and

•Price: competitive part pricing, considering total cost of ownership.

We believe that our digital end-to-end manufacturing capabilities position us favorably and has enabled us to become a leader in our markets.

Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability

Our corporate responsibility and sustainability practices are built on a foundation of shared fundamental values. Our value statements are: We are one Team, We are Kind, We are Makers, We Win or We Learn and We Take Ownership. These values help us to deliver strong financial results that create value for our Company and our shareholders in a way that respects our communities and the environments in which we operate.

•We are one Team – We are one global team. We're successful when we work together, challenge one and other, and make decisions that support our common goals. We are authentic in our interactions.

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•We are Kind – We are clear with our words and actions. We seek and give thoughtful and constructive feedback delivered with respect. We're open to other's opinions and support decisions made.

•We are Makers – Whether we manufacture a part or provide a customer experience, we demonstrate excitement in our work. We embrace change and create space for experimentation and calculated risks.

•We Win or We Learn - We're dedicated to achieving our goals. When we fail, we learn and respond with resiliency. When we win, we share in celebration.

•We Take Ownership - We take pride in our work. We are enthusiastic about the impact we make on our employees, our customers, and the communities we serve.

Environmental

•Digital Manufacturing Drives Sustainability

As a digital manufacturer, we are able to assist our customers as they focus on materials management, operational productivity and on-demand solutions. Digital manufacturing is a solution our customers can deploy to reduce product waste by iterating part designs virtually, on a digital twin model before any actual production begins. With on-demand production of parts, there is also reduced reliance on storage facilities since inventory is virtual – the parts you need, when you need them. Our on-demand manufacturing model also helps customers with end-of-life planning for products, reducing the need for ordering excess parts with shifting market demand.

When paired with a robust e-commerce platform, digital manufacturing can also increase efficiencies in material selection and usage, the procurement process, and accelerate innovation. Furthermore, reducing scrap rate requires monitoring systems that enable automated process cycle sheet generation, ensuring run-to-run repeatability and reducing operator error. This kind of monitoring system can improve consistency in part production and reduce scrap costs, especially in injection molding and parts nonconformance. We believe sustainability in product development, and in manufacturing, is the future and we will continue to support our customers in their own sustainability journeys.

•Environmental Priorities

We are committed to having a positive impact on the environment. Our environmental key priorities include: nonrenewable energy use reduction and environmental compliance. We have devoted resources to manage increasing costs of energy, particularly in the European region, and sought opportunities to reduce our consumption of energy resources. We also embraced opportunities to shift our energy consumption to renewable resources.

In 2025, we again hosted InspirON in Europe, an online knowledge sharing event to focus on what design engineers need to consider when developing sustainable products for manufacturing. The event was designed to provide insight into designing more sustainable products and to explore how design can help make the manufacturing process greener and more efficient. The event covered topics ranging from: manufacturing innovation in the face of adversity, using rapid manufacturing to solve complex development challenges, and practical innovation for production methods.

In 2021, we were awarded a Manufacturing Leadership Award from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in the Sustainability Leadership category. This category recognizes companies embracing manufacturing processes that are non-polluting, conserve energy and natural resources, and are economically sound and safe for employees, communities, and consumers. In 2020, we installed nearly 1,900 solar panels on the roof of our facility in Plymouth, MN, one of our larger manufacturing facilities. The solar array covers nearly 20 percent of our energy use in Plymouth, MN and offsets the equivalent of 1.3 million pounds of CO2 and preserves 775 acres of forest annually.

We strive to maximize recycling in both our manufacturing and office facilities. In our manufacturing facilities, we recycle metal, plastic and water used throughout the manufacturing processes. Finally, the Green Team, an employee-led organization, educates our employees on how they can positively impact the environment,

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both at work and at home. The Green Team also provides opportunities for employees to positively impact the environment, including activities like roadside cleanup and tree planting.

Social

•Leadership

In 2025, our global human resources leadership advanced our initiatives to identify untapped talent as we continue to integrate operations of the factory and network. This work includes engaging employees throughout the global organization and rewarding those who are living our values through quarterly recognition of individuals and teams. We periodically conduct employee engagement surveys to identify and drive improvements in the Protolabs workplace where employee feedback is used to drive action plans to create an environment where our employees can do their best work. We strive to create a culture of accountability, ethical conduct, and operational excellence. Our leadership team is evaluated against performance goals tied to our strategic priorities and shareholder interest.

•Workforce Demographics

As of December 31, 2025, we had 2,280 full-time employees, including 1,627 full-time employees in the United States and 653 full-time employees in Europe. We also use independent contractors and other temporary employees across the organization to augment our regular staff. We believe that our future success will depend in part on our continued ability to attract, hire and retain qualified personnel.

We believe our employees are critical to our success and continually seek employee feedback to enhance employee engagement. In 2025 our attrition rates were 13.6% in both the United States and Europe. Our 2025 attrition rates include actions we took during the year to reduce our workforce in areas of the business that we are in the process of restructuring and transforming to improve operational efficiency and streamline the organization. Cost savings generated from these restructuring and transformation initiatives are being redeployed into technology investments, including enhancements to core systems, automation, and digital capabilities, to support growth in the Company's core business and further drive scale and efficiency.

•Compensation and Benefits

We believe our success depends on our ability to attract, retain and motivate a broad range of employees in a competitive and evolving environment. To support this objective, we maintain a competitive compensation program designed to align employee performance with company results. In determining employee compensation, our executive leadership team considers a number of factors, including individual and company performance, manager input, competitive market data from third party compensation surveys, our compensation philosophy and leadership experience. Annually, our executive leadership team reviews recommendations form managers regarding compensation levels based on an employee’s job performance, skills, experience, qualifications, and role within the organization. We also award long-term equity-based compensation to certain high performing employees and managers whose roles have significant impact on the creation of shareholder value.

We provide employee benefits that meet or exceed legal requirements. Our benefits programs include, but are not limited to, paid leave, retirement savings plans, health and dental coverage, and family related benefits including maternity , parental, family care, and childcare benefits. Overtime is performed and compensated in accordance with applicable law and the terms of the individual’s employment contract or other applicable contract or agreement.

•Education

We believe that investing in the education of our employees is critical to our success. We provide our employees with access to a robust learning management system that offers hundreds of courses on various topics ranging from compliance to leadership to job-specific skills. In 2025 , employees spent an average of 35 hours per employee in training sessions. We provide an Educational Assistance Program for employees, which offers financial assistance for both professional and personal development to inspire employees to continuously enhance their skills and knowledge. We have a customized leadership development program designed for current and aspiring managers in search of developing their leadership skills. The program provides training on topics that are aligned with our Leadership Principles and our Core Values. In 2025, we completed the third year of our

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mentorship program to provide opportunities for mentors and mentees to accelerate their personal and professional development through a one-on-one guided relationship.

To ensure our industry remains robust, we are committed to supporting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programs in the cities where we have facilities. Through the Protolabs Foundation, we provide STEM education grants to eligible organizations. In addition, we partner with schools, colleges, and universities to provide various outreach opportunities and sponsorships.

•Health, Safety and Wellness

We are committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment that minimizes health and safety risks. Our processes support accident prevention and prioritizes the health and safety of all our employees and all others affected by their activities. We provide and require our employees to use personal protective equipment at all times. To ensure our employees understand the importance of safety, we provide regular, mandatory training.

We strive to continuously improve our employees’ health, safety, and wellness. Our “I Am” safety program teaches that safety is the responsibility of every individual in our organization. We believe this program is the basis for our excellent safety compliance record. We believe that our employees are our most valuable asset, and their safety and health is among our top priorities.

In addition to concentrating on employee safety in the workplace, we also focus on the overall wellbeing of our employees. We continue to invest in a variety of employee health and wellness programs, including gym membership discounts, on-site fitness classes at certain facilities, wellness newsletters and learning sessions, and by providing various Employee Assistance Programs.

•Charitable Giving

We pride ourselves in being a responsible corporate citizen through our Protolabs Foundation. We support several charitable causes with our Employee Matching, Community Grants, and Major Gifts Programs. The Foundation’s efforts serve as a sustaining investment in the future of the communities where our employees live and work, and a commitment to build talent to support the future employment needs of the manufacturing industry. Through our Foundation and employee led community involvement team, a wide variety of charitable activities are organized, including supporting Girls Who Code, packing meal boxes for Matter Box, and volunteering for Feed My Starving Children, and making financial contributions to charitable causes, many of which are matched through the Protolabs Foundation Employee Giving Program. Our financial support and our community outreach programs are intended to improve the quality of life in the communities where we have facilities.

•Human Rights

We recognize our responsibility to protect human rights and we are committed to fostering an organizational culture which promotes support for internationally recognized human rights and labor standards. We strive to respect and promote human rights in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in our relationship with our employees, customers, and suppliers. We have established a Human Rights Policy which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website.

•Supply Chain

We are committed to conducting our business in accordance with the highest ethical standards and in compliance with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations. We expect our suppliers to share our principles and uphold our standards and for each to develop policies and programs as appropriate to ensure that all workers understand and adhere to these standards. We have established a Vendor Code of Conduct Policy, including guidance on anti-bribery, privacy, and data protection; responsible sourcing of materials; environmental standards; labor and human rights and anti-tax evasion. Our full policy is available on the Investor Relations section of our website.

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Intellectual Property

We regard our patents, trademarks, service marks, trade dress, trade secrets, copyrights, domain names and other intellectual property as valuable to our business and rely on patent, trademark and copyright law, trade secret protection and confidentiality and/or license agreements with our employees, customers, vendors and others to protect our proprietary rights. We register our patents, trademarks and service marks in the United States and other jurisdictions as we deem appropriate. As of December 31, 2025, we owned and had applications pending for patents relating to various aspects of our quoting and manufacturing processes as follows:

Our patents have expiration dates ranging from 2026 to 2045. We also owned approximately 17 registered United States trademarks or service marks as of December 31, 2025, with corresponding registered protection in Europe for the most important of these marks such as PROTO LABS, HUBS, PROTOLABS NETWORK, FIRSTCUT, PROTOMOLD, PROTOQUOTE, MANUFACTURING ACCELERATED, PROTOFLOW, MICROFINE and MICROFINE GREEN, corresponding approved protection in Canada for PROTO LABS, FIRSTCUT and FINELINE, and corresponding registered protection in Australia, Canada and Mexico for PROTOMOLD. There can be no assurance that the steps we take to protect our proprietary rights will be adequate or that third parties will not infringe or misappropriate such rights. We have been subject to claims and expect to be subject to legal proceedings and claims from time to time in the ordinary course of our business. In particular, we may face claims from third parties that we have infringed their patents, trademarks or other intellectual property rights. Such claims, even if not meritorious, could result in the expenditure of significant financial and managerial resources. Any unauthorized disclosure or use of our intellectual property could make it more expensive to do business and harm our operating results.

Available Information

Our principal executive offices are located at 5540 Pioneer Creek Drive, Maple Plain, Minnesota 55359 and our telephone number is (763) 479-3680. Our website address is www.protolabs.com. Information on our website does not constitute part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report we file or furnish with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We provide free access to various reports that we file with or furnish to the SEC through our website as soon as reasonably practicable after they have been filed or furnished. These reports include, but are not limited to, our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to these reports. Our SEC reports can be accessed through the investor relations section of our website.

The SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file information electronically with the SEC. The SEC’s website is www.sec.gov.

Information about our Executive Officers

Set forth below are the names of our current executive officers, their ages, titles, the year first appointed as an executive officer, and employment for the past five years. Unless otherwise noted, the positions described are positions held within the Company or its subsidiaries.

Executive officers of the Company are elected at the discretion of the board of directors. There are no family relationships between or among any of the executive officers or directors of the Company. There are no arrangements or

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understandings between any of the executive officers and any other persons pursuant to which they were selected as an officer.

Suresh Krishna. Mr. Krishna has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since May 2025. Prior to joining Protolabs, Mr. Krishna most recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Northern Tool + Equipment, a manufacturer and retailer of tools and commercial equipment from April 2020 through November 2024. Prior to that, Mr. Krishna held operations and leadership roles at companies such as Sleep Number Corporation, Polaris Industries and UTC Fire & Security.

Daniel Schumacher. Mr. Schumacher has served as our Chief Financial Officer and principal financial and accounting officer since June 2022. Prior to his current role, Mr. Schumacher served as our Interim Chief Financial Officer since December 2021. Mr. Schumacher also led investor communication, forecasting and planning, and business intelligence for the Company as Vice President of Investor Relations and FP&A from April 2017 to December 2021. From 2015 to 2017, Mr. Schumacher served as finance director in the Americas Finance & Operations organization of Stratasys, Inc, a 3D Printing OEM. From 2001 to 2015, Mr. Schumacher was in finance leadership roles of increasing responsibility for Rockwell Automation, an industrial automation company.

Marc Kermisch. Mr. Kermisch has served as our Chief Technology & AI Officer since October 2025. Prior to joining Proto Labs, Mr. Kermisch most recently served as Chief Technology Officer for Emergent Software, a full-stack technology company specializing in software development, cloud transformation, artificial intelligence (AI), and data engineering solutions from October 2024 through October 2025. Prior to that, Mr. Kermisch served as Global Chief Digital and Information Officer at Case New Holland, a manufacturer of agriculture and construction equipment where he focused on developing autonomous vehicles, precision farming applications, and electric powertrains from April 2021 through August 2024. Prior to Case New Holland, Mr. Kermisch served as Chief Technology Officer at Optum Rx, a pharmacy benefits manager from March 2020 through April 2021. Earlier in his career, he held executive leadership roles at Bluestem Brands and Redwing Shoe company, among others.

Michael Kenison. Mr. Kenison has served as our Chief Operations Officer since July 2024. Prior to his current position, Mr. Kenison led various teams at the Company, including as Vice President/General Manager - Americas, between June 2021 through June 2024, and Vice President of Manufacturing, between 2013 through June 2021. Before his tenure at Protolabs, Mr. Kenison served in several leadership roles within the industry, including as Vice President of Manufacturing at Cardiac Science, Inc. - a medical device provider of defibrillator technology.