CELLINK AB, the leading bioconvergence company in world that provides technologies, products, and services to create, understand and master biology, is on a rapid expansion spree as it announced two successive acquisitions of Visikol, an American contract research services company offering leading services in 3D cell culture, 3D tissue imaging, multiplex imaging, and digital pathology to pharma and biotech companies, and Nanoscribe, a market leading and award-winning German company focusing on development of high-precision 3D printers based on Two-Photon Polymerization technology (2PP).
Visikol
Founded in 2016 by entrepreneurs out of Rutgers University, Visikol is a contract research services company focusing on accelerating the discovery and development of therapeutics by providing pharmaceutical and biotech companies with best-in-class 3D cell culture, 3D tissue imaging, multiplex imaging, and digital pathology services. Many of these services leverage the proprietary Visikol® HISTO™ tissue clearing reagents as well as Visikol’s proprietary software platform, 3Screen™ which is built on advanced machine learning evaluation to provide customers in depth analysis of their tissue and cell culture samples. Today, Visikol counts half of the top twenty pharmaceutical companies as customers.
CELLINK has acquired all outstanding shares in Visikol for a purchase price of $7.5 million on a cash- and debt-free basis under the assumption that the working capital at closing equals the normalized working capital at closing of which approximately $2.5 million will be paid in 57,911 newly issued shares of series B in CELLINK at a price of SEK 357.60 per share (Consideration Shares) and the remainder in cash.
Erik Gatenholm, CEO, CELLINK expressed, “We are excited to welcome Visikol to the CELLINK Group. We see great potential in building a strong service portfolio based on innovative analysis of 3D cell cultures. This is a great example of bioconvergence – where reagents meet software based on advanced machine learning, in order to improve health and create the future of medicine.”
“We founded Visikol five years ago with the vision to transform tissues into actionable insights for our customers. Over the years we have developed our offering by combining science with technology, which is spot on what CELLINK is all about. We look forward to being a part of the Group and continue to develop market leading offerings together with our new colleagues.”
Michael Johnson, CEO, Visikol spoke on the acquisition
Nanoscribe
Founded in 2007, by leading scientists and PhD Students from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Nanoscribe is a pioneer and the market leading company in 2PP technology. The company’s products are being used by customers in over 30 different countries worldwide, enabling customers to materialize their ground-breaking ideas. Nanoscribe has created its strong market leading position through high quality engineering and agility to continuously develop its products to meet customers’ high expectations. Nanoscribe expects to diversify its product portfolio further in the near future, to expand the customer base.
CELLINK will acquire all outstanding shares on a cash- and debt-free basis, and under the assumption that the working capital at closing equals the normalized working capital, to a purchase price of €34 million and approximately €16 million in earn-outs, in Nanoscribe (the “Acquisition”). Approximately thirty-five percent of the fixed purchase price of €34 million will be paid in newly issued shares of series B in CELLINK (the “Consideration Shares”) and the remaining part which consists of an earn-out will be paid cash. CELLINK’s Board of Directors will resolve to issue the Consideration Shares in accordance with the authorization from the Annual General Meeting held on April 26, 2021.
“With this strategic acquisition of Nanoscribe, we will further strengthen our market leading position within the 3D bioprinting segment. With Nanoscribe’s state of the art 2PP technology, we will complement our product portfolio and offer a wider range of products to our amazing customers. We are combining our strong, purpose driven growth agenda with trailblazing bioconverging technologies for the sake of improving health all around the world.”
Erik Gatenholm, CEO, CELLINK
According to Martin Hermatschweiler, Co-founder, and CEO, Nanoscribe, “We take pride in our state-of-the-art 2PP technology, offering our customers the tools to materialize their ground-breaking ideas. We are a vibrant, award-winning company that continuously strives to maintain our market leading position, which has been achieved through close relationships with our customers. We very much look forward to join the CELLINK Group and together explore the possibilities with the 2PP technique and deliver on the Group’s vision to create the future of medicine.”
About Manufactur3D Magazine: Manufactur3D is an online magazine on 3D Printing. Visit our Global News page for more updates on Global 3D Printing News. To stay up-to-date about the latest happenings in the 3D printing world, like us on Facebook or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
