Successful exit after 1,5 years validates LSPs investment rationale
Munich, Germany ─ May 8, 2017 ─ LSP today announced that it has sold its portfolio company Luxendo, a spin-off of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) that develops and manufactures proprietary light-sheet fluorescence microscopy instruments to Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ: BRKR). Luxendo’s single plane illumination microscopy (SPIM) technique significantly reduces sampling times over conventional laser scanning confocal microscopes, while reducing phototoxicity and damaging side effects on living specimens. This SPIM technology also enables the fastest scan speeds for volumetric imaging of small organisms, cell monolayers, and cleared tissue. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, Luxendo was seed-financed by LSP and EMBL Ventures in Q4, 2015. “Our investment strategy was based on the assumption that EMBL had again generated cutting-edge light microscopy technology and IP”, comments Dr. Joachim Rothe, Managing Partner at LSP and member of Luxendo´s Board of Directors, “and that the uniqueness of this technology would attract strategic partners to roll out the technology and make it widely available to the research community without delay. Less than two years later, this strategy has been successfully borne out”.
“With its strong IP position and unique SPIM technology, Luxendo has quickly established itself in the light-sheet microscopy market, particularly in Europe,” said Dr. Mark R. Munch, President of the Bruker NANO Group. “Similar to our recent acquisition in super-resolution microscopy, the new capabilities provide valuable application synergies to our current suite of instruments, and we feel that we can take the business to the next level in both global market reach and next-generation development, which should greatly benefit our life sciences research customers.”
“Light-sheet microscopy is revolutionizing bioimaging, and Luxendo has had an influential role in the adoption of this type of imaging in an ever-growing variety of live-sample studies,” added Dr. Andreas Pfuhl, CEO of Luxendo. “We feel that our history with EMBL has given us a unique insight into what bioimaging researchers need both right now and in the near future, and are very gratified to join with such an internationally esteemed instrumentation company whose philosophy, culture, and reputation so closely align with our research-oriented goals.”
“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,” said EMBL Director General Iain Mattaj. “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.”
About Luxendo
Luxendo launched the MuVi-SPIM and InVi-SPIM microscopes in 2016. Both microscopes avoid sample phototoxicity by sequentially illuminating a stack of small slices of the organism, allowing scientists to observe living organisms for extended periods of time without photodamage. The MuVi-SPIM microscope allows fast 3D imaging of living objects, such as spheroids and whole specimens without the need of sample rotation. The InVi-SPIM microscope enables fast 3D imaging with extremely gentle sample handling for cell cultures and developing embryonic samples. For more information, please visit www.luxendo.eu.
Staatz Business Development & Strategy acted as transaction advisor to Luxendo.
About LSP
LSP 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 Bruker Corporation
For more than 55 years, Bruker has enabled scientists to make breakthrough discoveries and develop new applications that improve the quality of human life. Bruker’s high-performance scientific instruments and high-value analytical and diagnostic solutions enable scientists to explore life and materials at molecular, cellular and microscopic levels.
In close cooperation with our customers, Bruker is enabling innovation, productivity and customer success in life science molecular research, in applied and pharma applications, and in microscopy, nano-analysis and industrial applications. In recent years, Bruker has also become a provider of high-performance systems for cell biology, preclinical imaging, clinical phenomics and proteomics research, clinical microbiology, and for molecular pathology research. For more information, please visit: www.bruker.com.
About EMBL
EMBL is Europe’s flagship laboratory for the life sciences. Scientists at EMBL perform fundamental research in molecular biology, studying the story of life. EMBL research drives the development of new technology and methods in the life sciences, which EMBL transfers for the benefit of society.
Contact:
Dr. Joachim Rothe
Managing Partner LSP
+49 89 330 666 0