We have reported on Landa Digital’s insolvency over the past two weeks. I am myself a professional Landa follower since first meeting him at Ipex in Birmingham in 1993 at the launch of the Indigo. As others have noted, over the years, we have witnessed his technological advancements, machines, and press conferences. We have observed that he is prone to changing his marketing paradigms and narratives. In his apologies at press conferences for misreadings of the market and subsequent course corrections, he has managed to make himself look humble and transparent.
Several trade journalists have written about the current insolvency of Landa Digital and the court’s first granting a freeze or protection from creditors for two weeks starting on 30 June 2025 to restructure and find investors, partners, or buyers for the company. In the past fourteen days, figures as to the liabilities, and receivables have also been published.
Apart from my initial story based on a report in the Israeli technical and financial press, we have published two detailed stories by Nessan Cleary that present quite a bit of the background and detail of the Landa nano technology and the prospective investors or buyers. Sergey Belokurov has outlined Landa Digital’s continuous inability to match his public statements with deliveries of product. Belokurov’s Chronicles of Unfulfilled Promises: How Landa Digital Printing Became a Lesson for High-Tech and What Awaits the ‘Giant on the Brink’?, presents an informative timeline of exaggerations.
In the past two weeks, it is reported that about 30 Landa Digital customers have cosigned a letter given to the Israel Central District Court stating that their businesses and “thousands of jobs” will be jeopardized by Landa going out of business. There are various estimates of Landa employees let go and my unconfirmed guess is that not more than 250 remain on the rolls. At the same time, it is reported that 25 dissenting employees opposed the extension of the freeze on creditor actions by two months, saying that the assets should be sold off as soon as possible.
Subsequent to the 30 June, fourteen day stay, the Israeli court has given Landa Digital Printing an extension or protection from creditors till the end of August to find a solution. Reportedly it also heard an impassioned plea from Benny Landa asking the court for time to find a long-term solution. However, the court has instead appointed two administrators – Shlomo Filiba and Sigal Rozen-Rechav to help formulate an agreement acceptable to creditors leaving management to run the day-to-day affairs of the business.
My view is that too many trade journalists have been complicit in promoting Landa’s nanotechnology without either trying to understand what it was or the possible challenges in bringing it to market at appropriate quality and price levels. Many were taken in by Benny Landa’s razmatazz and in the case of several who praised the machines’ “good enough quality” were also fascinated by the junkets to Israel. They could have shown responsibility to their readers, the printers who were themselves often equally fascinated by the ‘infotainment’ of the Landa shows at drupa.
The Indian printers have been big fans, although no machines have been sold into the country, likely due to Landa’s reluctance to enter an extremely demanding market. After the Landa Nano launch at drupa 2012, I remember asking a printer in Gujarat why he had also paid or committed to paying US$ 10,000 to be in line for a Landa digital press if and when it would work (and when Benny would be willing to sell into the Indian market).
He replied, “Just the publicity is worth the money, and when the time comes we will see how it works. And, if it does what Benny says it will, and the price is right, why not be the first to install one?”
