BICO (Formerly Cellink): The Bioprinting Powerhouse Behind a Universal Bioink Revolution and Rapid IPO

Ring the opening bell at Nasdaq, just like holding up the Oscar statuette, holds profound significance for many companies. Some strive for decades to achieve this milestone, yet Cellink, a bioink manufacturer from Sweden, executed a “speedrun” on Nasdaq.

Cellink, founded in 2016, went public on the Nasdaq just 10 months after its inception, a feat akin to “lightning speed.”In fact, this is also Cellink’s consistent strategy. Since 2020, Cellink has acquired five competitors within three years, rapidly expanding its product pipeline and market share.

Renowned for its efficiency, Cellink is the “model worker” of the bioprinting industry. Over the past eight years, Cellink has developed nearly dozens of bioinks across eight major series, including the CELLINK series, Collagen series, and GelMA series, while also securing nearly one hundred patents in fields such as bioinks, bioprinting, cell culture, and tissue engineering.

In Just 8 Years, Cellink Leaped from a Startup to a Giant in Bioprinting: What Is Its Secret?

Bioinks are typically composed of biocompatible materials such as cells, biomacromolecules (e.g., proteins and polysaccharides), and growth factors. These materials can support cell growth, differentiation, and functional performance under specific conditions.

In bioprinting, the formulation and selection of bioinks have a critical impact on the final outcome. For instance, different bioinks possess distinct properties, with variations in fluidity, viscosity, cell viability, and differentiation potential. These properties directly influence the morphology and function of the printed biological tissues, thereby affecting their subsequent performance.

Since the debut of NOVOGEN MMX, the world’s first commercial bioprinter, bioinks have garnered significant attention. However, for a long period, progress in bioink development remained sluggish. Researchers were compelled to formulate bioinks manually before each printing run, which not only delayed R&D timelines but also compromised printing success rates.

Dr. Martinez Avila, who holds a Ph.D. in Biology, is also actively engaged in the field of bioinks. He has worked on modifying bacterial nanocellulose, developing several novel variants for use in 3D-printing ear cartilage implants.

In 2015, after earning his PhD from Chalmers University of Technology, Martinez Avila remained dedicated to the research and development of bioinks. It was during this period that he met Erik Gatenholm, who shared his interest in bioinks but with a different focus: Gatenholm recognized their commercial potential. Having started his entrepreneurial journey in the medical device sector at the age of 18, Gatenholm’s first company specialized in meniscal implants and other implantable devices, giving him extensive expertise in medical engineering.

One year later, the two founded Cellink and released the first universal bio-ink in the same year, achieving instant success.

This universal bioink is a nanocellulose-based hydrogel. This material provides structural properties similar to those of the extracellular matrix. Cells are mixed with the bioink for printing, allowing the use of a single-nozzle printer. The printed structures are then crosslinked, resulting in enhanced handleability and impact resistance.

This bioink played a pivotal role in the then-emerging field of 3D bioprinting, not only transforming how researchers utilize bioinks but also reducing costs. More importantly,Cellink has sparked the transformation of bioinks into a booming, multi-hundred-million-dollar industry.

However, the growth driven by bioinks did not satisfy Cellink.They have also launched their own bioprinter, “INKREDIBLE”This is a dynamic extrusion-based bioprinter that innovatively features a dual-nozzle design, enabling users to print with different cell types within the same structure without pausing the printing process, thereby supporting the fabrication of more complex structures. Furthermore, this bioprinter is easy to operate and offers high precision and high compatibility, facilitating the transition of bioprinting technology from laboratory settings to broader application scenarios.

Subsequently, CELLINK launched two universal bioinks, CELLINK A and SUPPORTINK. All of this took place in 2016—the first year of CELLINK’s establishment.

In the following years, Cellink did not rest.It developed the world’s first bio-3D printer based on Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology., enabling direct printing in multi-well plates and the fabrication of biological tissues within seconds, thereby further accelerating the pace of bioprinting. In 2023, the first-ever medical-grade bioink was launched, making 3D-printed implantable organs a reality.

As of 2024, Cellink offers three extrusion-based bioprinters and three light-based bioprinters, along with a diverse portfolio of bioinks including ready-to-use, tissue-specific, clinical-grade, and photopolymerizable formulations.According to publicly available information from Cellink, laboratories of multiple top-20 global pharmaceutical companies are using Cellink products.

Cellink’s rapid growth has been driven not only by continuous product innovation and iteration. The high-efficiency working style of its two founders has also propelled CELLINK onto a fast track of mergers and acquisitions.

Since 2010, Cellink has been gradually acquiring its competitors.

·In August 2020, Cellink acquired Scienion, also a provider of bio-3D printing technology, for €80 million.

·In March 2021, Cellink acquired MatTek Corporation, an expert in in vitro cell technology, for $68 million.

·In May 2021, Cellink acquired Nanoscribe, a manufacturer of two-photon polymerization (2PP) 3D printers, for €50 million.

· In June 2021, Cellink acquired Discover Echo Inc., a company focused on the development, manufacturing, and sales of hybrid microscopes, for $110 million.

Each acquisition has not only reduced Cellink’s competitive landscape but also accelerated the iteration of its 3D printing technology and the expansion of its product pipeline. For instance, the acquisition of Nanoscribe enabled Cellink to fully acquire two-photon polymerization (2PP) technology. This technology enables the fabrication of ultra-fine microstructures, which holds significant importance for cell research and a range of novel lab-on-a-chip devices. Leveraging this technology, Cellink is able to print more realistic soft tissues.

The acquisition of MatTek Corporation has enabled CELLINK to acquire new in vitro technologies, advancing its research into animal-free cell-based testing models. This research has also created opportunities for CELLINK to collaborate with numerous academic and research institutions as well as leading pharmaceutical companies.

As is well known, identifying a drug candidate and bringing the final product to market can take up to 10 years and require hundreds of millions in funding, yet the failure rate remains as high as 90%.In Cellink’s view, 3D bioprinting may be the optimal solution to this challenge.

First, bioprinting enables high-throughput compound screening on functional 3D tissue models, thereby reducing the number of candidate drugs that fail in clinical trials. Second, bioprinting generates more physiologically relevant models, improving the sustainability of preclinical drug discovery and consequently lowering costs. Finally, during clinical trials, bioprinted models can help minimize drug-induced liver injury, thus reducing the failure rate.

asSoochow UniversityCollaborated with Cellink to fabricate 3D liver models using the BIO X for drug-induced liver injury (DILI) testing, aiming to eliminate hepatotoxic compounds from the development pipeline.Cornell University and Wake Forest University TeamINKREDIBLE has also been used for high-throughput immersion bioprinting analysis of patient-derived tumor organoids.

Rapid growth has not distracted Cellink from its original mission; it continues to deepen its expertise in the bio-3D printing sector and has pursued multiple commercial collaborations.

In 2023, Cellink announced a collaboration with Carcinotech to leverage 3D bioprinted tumor models for accelerating cancer drug development. Reportedly, Cellink will provide various cancer tissue models through its newly developed BIO CELLX system, aiming to enable drug development researchers to obtain results more rapidly and accurately. Additionally, Cellink has previously partnered with the French medical technology company CTI Biotech to enhance the simulation of realistic tumor growth environments and treatment responses, thereby providing more personalized treatment plans for patients.

In 2016, Cellink fired the starting shot in the bioink sector. Leveraging its universal bioink as a catalyst, Cellink has expanded the application landscape of bioprinting technology significantly over just eight years.

As bio-3D printing gains momentum, researchers in China have joined the trend, yielding a steady stream of innovative scientific achievements.

2021Tsinghua University TeamAnnounced the development of a cell-laden microgel biphasic bioink featuring a heterogeneous tissue microenvironment, which better simulates the structural complexity and heterogeneity of native tissues and organs. Furthermore, in 2023National Children's Medical Center (Shanghai), Shanghai Children's Medical Center, in collaboration with the team from Donghua UniversityWe have jointly developed a novel bioink. This bioink possesses a series of properties, including antibacterial activity, shape fidelity, suitability for 3D bioprinting, and cryoprotective effects for cells, offering broad prospects for biomedical applications.

In the market, domestically produced bio-inks are also showing a trend of expanding market size and significant technological advancements.Currently, multiple bio-3D printing technology companies have emerged in China, including Shangpu Bio and Hangzhou Jianuofei, with bioinks being a key product pipeline for these enterprises.As of 2024, SunP Biotech has launched multiple bioinks, including the SunP LAP UV/Blue Light Photoinitiator Photo-Curable Bioink, which are widely used in fields such as bioprinting, tissue engineering, and medical device R&D.

With the rapid development and continuous advancement of biotechnology, its applications are expanding at an unprecedented pace into multiple frontier fields, including healthcare, tissue engineering, drug discovery, regenerative medicine, and even food science. As a core material in bio-3D printing technology, bioink is gaining increasing prominence, serving as a critical bridge between biotechnology and practical applications. Research and development of bioinks in China are progressing rapidly, and they are poised to demonstrate strong competitiveness and influence on the international stage in the future.