Bruker has acquired Luxendo, a spinout of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory that closed an $8.4m series A round in January.
Luxendo, a microscope manufacturer spun out of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), has been acquired by scientific instruments manufacturer Bruker.
Founded in 2015, Luxendo has developed microscopes based on its single plane illumination technology (Spim), which allows researchers to observe organisms for prolonged periods by sequentially illuminating a stack of slices (of up to a few micrometres in size) of the organism to avoid photo-toxicity.
The company closed an €8m ($8.4m) series A round in January 2017, following a €2m second tranche supplied by EMBL Ventures and EMBL Enterprise Management Technology Transfer (Emblem), the institute’s investment arm and commercialisation office, respectively, and LSP.
EMBL Ventures and LSP had previously also provided an initial €6m series A tranche in 2015.
Jürgen Bauer, deputy managing director of Emblem, said: “The successful partnering of Luxendo with Bruker within 18 months of spin-off creation was only possible due to the excellent collaboration within EMBL’s unique technology transfer and innovation ecosystem: innovative EMBL researchers paired with experienced technology transfer managers at Emblem and investment managers at EMBL Ventures.”
Iain Mattaj, director general of EMBL, said: “It has been very rewarding to witness the rapid trajectory from pioneering technology developed at EMBL to Luxendo’s well-designed, robust microscopes, and now this acquisition.
“We anticipate that Bruker, with its excellent reputation in providing innovative technology, will make Spim even more widely available. It will be truly exciting to see what the larger biological research community will discover with light-sheet microscopy.”
