LSP co-leads Luxendo Series A financing round



Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 14, 2015 – Luxendo, a start-up company launched by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and its technology transfer arm EMBLEM Technology Transfer (EMBLEM) in Heidelberg announced today the closing of a EUR 6 Million Series A financing co-led by EMBL Ventures, Heidelberg and Life Science Partners (LSP), Amsterdam. Dr Stefan Herr, Partner at EMBL Ventures and Dr. Joachim Rothe, Partner at LSP will join Luxendo Board.
 
EMBL has been at the forefront of microscope technology development worldwide for decades. Luxendo will manufacture and sell advanced Single Plane Illumination Microscopes (SPIM) originally developed at EMBL by Lars Hufnagel and his team. As compared to other existing light microscope technologies, SPIM uses for the first time a thin light sheet instead of a focussed light beam for sample illumination. The resulting plane illumination allows immediate and faster registration and acquisition of objects rather than the former slow beam spot scanning technology. Compared to modern state of the art confocal or wide-field microscopes, SPIM technology allows for significantly reduced sampling times (factor 1000x) at comparable and even higher resolution with highly reduced damaging side effects on the living objects investigated. SPIM technology was 2015 characterized “Method of the Year” by Nature Science.
 
“While today more than 2.500 labs around the globe use confocal microscopes to conduct their research, SPIM technology has come more and more in the focus of scientists in both academia and industry” comments Stefan Herr. “Luxendo’s SPIM technology taps into this rapidly emerging market and has the potential to gain a significant share of it due to its superior characteristics.”
 
“SPIM microscopy allows researchers to see things they couldn’t dream of before, such as imaging the entire embryonic development of the fruit fly with subcellular resolution,” says Joachim Rothe , “Luxendo will make this exciting technology available to many labs around the globe”.
 
About LSP
LSP (Life Sciences Partners) is a leading independent European investment firm, providing financing for private and public life-science companies. Since the late 1980s, LSP’s management has invested in a large number of highly innovative enterprises, many of which have grown to become leaders of the global life-science industry. With over USD 1 billion of investment capital raised to date and offices in Amsterdam, Munich and Boston, LSP is one of Europe’s largest and most experienced specialist life-science investors. For more information, please visit www.lspvc.com.
 
About EMBL Ventures GmbH
EMBL Ventures, based in Heidelberg, invests throughout Europe in life science companies with the aim to create significant commercial opportunities based on new therapeutic treatment modalities, next generation enabling technology platforms or innovations in the diagnostics and device area. EMBL Ventures manages EUR 68m on behalf of major European institutional and private investors and typically invests EUR 3 to 5 m as lead or co-lead investor. EMBL Ventures' close relationship with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and its technology transfer organization EMBL Enterprise Management Technology Transfer GmbH (EMBLEM) allows to find and identify disruptive technologies such as Luxendo’s SPIM technology. For more information, please visit www.embl-ventures.com.
 
About EMBL
EMBL is Europe’s flagship laboratory for the life sciences, with more than 80 independent groups covering the spectrum of molecular biology. EMBL is international, innovative and interdisciplinary – its 1600 employees, from many nations, operate across five sites: the main laboratory in Heidelberg, and outstations in Grenoble; Hamburg; Hinxton, near Cambridge (the European Bioinformatics Institute), and Monterotondo, near Rome. Founded in 1974, EMBL is an inter-governmental organisation funded by public research monies from its member states. The cornerstones of EMBL’s mission are: to perform basic research in molecular biology; to train scientists, students and visitors at all levels; to offer vital services to scientists in the member states; to develop new instruments and methods in the life sciences and actively engage in technology transfer activities, and to integrate European life science research. Around 230 students are enrolled in EMBL’s International PhD programme. Additionally, the Laboratory offers a platform for dialogue with the general public through various science communication activities such as lecture series, visitor programmes and the dissemination of scientific achievements.
 
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LSP co-leads Luxendo Series A financing round



Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 14, 2015 – Luxendo, a start-up company launched by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and its technology transfer arm EMBLEM Technology Transfer (EMBLEM) in Heidelberg announced today the closing of a EUR 6 Million Series A financing co-led by EMBL Ventures, Heidelberg and Life Science Partners (LSP), Amsterdam. Dr Stefan Herr, Partner at EMBL Ventures and Dr. Joachim Rothe, Partner at LSP will join Luxendo Board.
 
EMBL has been at the forefront of microscope technology development worldwide for decades. Luxendo will manufacture and sell advanced Single Plane Illumination Microscopes (SPIM) originally developed at EMBL by Lars Hufnagel and his team. As compared to other existing light microscope technologies, SPIM uses for the first time a thin light sheet instead of a focussed light beam for sample illumination. The resulting plane illumination allows immediate and faster registration and acquisition of objects rather than the former slow beam spot scanning technology. Compared to modern state of the art confocal or wide-field microscopes, SPIM technology allows for significantly reduced sampling times (factor 1000x) at comparable and even higher resolution with highly reduced damaging side effects on the living objects investigated. SPIM technology was 2015 characterized “Method of the Year” by Nature Science.
 
“While today more than 2.500 labs around the globe use confocal microscopes to conduct their research, SPIM technology has come more and more in the focus of scientists in both academia and industry” comments Stefan Herr. “Luxendo’s SPIM technology taps into this rapidly emerging market and has the potential to gain a significant share of it due to its superior characteristics.”
 
“SPIM microscopy allows researchers to see things they couldn’t dream of before, such as imaging the entire embryonic development of the fruit fly with subcellular resolution,” says Joachim Rothe , “Luxendo will make this exciting technology available to many labs around the globe”.
 
About LSP
LSP (Life Sciences Partners) is a leading independent European investment firm, providing financing for private and public life-science companies. Since the late 1980s, LSP’s management has invested in a large number of highly innovative enterprises, many of which have grown to become leaders of the global life-science industry. With over USD 1 billion of investment capital raised to date and offices in Amsterdam, Munich and Boston, LSP is one of Europe’s largest and most experienced specialist life-science investors. For more information, please visit www.lspvc.com.
 
About EMBL Ventures GmbH
EMBL Ventures, based in Heidelberg, invests throughout Europe in life science companies with the aim to create significant commercial opportunities based on new therapeutic treatment modalities, next generation enabling technology platforms or innovations in the diagnostics and device area. EMBL Ventures manages EUR 68m on behalf of major European institutional and private investors and typically invests EUR 3 to 5 m as lead or co-lead investor. EMBL Ventures' close relationship with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and its technology transfer organization EMBL Enterprise Management Technology Transfer GmbH (EMBLEM) allows to find and identify disruptive technologies such as Luxendo’s SPIM technology. For more information, please visit www.embl-ventures.com.
 
About EMBL
EMBL is Europe’s flagship laboratory for the life sciences, with more than 80 independent groups covering the spectrum of molecular biology. EMBL is international, innovative and interdisciplinary – its 1600 employees, from many nations, operate across five sites: the main laboratory in Heidelberg, and outstations in Grenoble; Hamburg; Hinxton, near Cambridge (the European Bioinformatics Institute), and Monterotondo, near Rome. Founded in 1974, EMBL is an inter-governmental organisation funded by public research monies from its member states. The cornerstones of EMBL’s mission are: to perform basic research in molecular biology; to train scientists, students and visitors at all levels; to offer vital services to scientists in the member states; to develop new instruments and methods in the life sciences and actively engage in technology transfer activities, and to integrate European life science research. Around 230 students are enrolled in EMBL’s International PhD programme. Additionally, the Laboratory offers a platform for dialogue with the general public through various science communication activities such as lecture series, visitor programmes and the dissemination of scientific achievements.
 
« back to overview