faCellitate GmbH

Abstract

faCellitate specializes in the development of polymeric surface coatings for cell culture consumables to create synthetic, biologically relevant tissue-like environments for cell-based assays with special focus on 3D cell culture. The products are used in areas of biomedical research such as cancer and stem cell research, in the preclinical phase of drug research and toxicological studies with the aim of refining the efficiency and predictability of preclinical cell models.

Company Name:
faCellitate GmbH

Solution offered:
With faCellitate polymers you can create fully synthetic, biologically relevant environments, and easily add function to your surface. The platform facilitates cellular interaction, significantly improving the cell culture in biological research.

Exit type:
Spin-off

Product or service description

faCellitate develops polymeric surface coatings for cell culture in cancer research, drug discovery, toxicology and stem cell research. The team launched BIOFLOAT™, faCellitate’s first product line that offers an advanced cell-inert surface coating for spheroid cell culture with superior reliability and consistency.

Who are your customers?

We shipped samples and sold our products in 50 countries worldwide including a multiplicity of players from renowned academic research institutes, big pharma and biotech.

What is your vision?

Our vision is to replace animal studies with other methods, reduce as many trials as required and refine minimum stress of study animals.

Meet the Founder: Simon Widmaier

Before joining the Venture, he was a Co-Founder of Aquarray GmbH. His area of expertise includes DeepTech Entrepreneurship and he holds a PhD in Biophysics.

As the only operative founder at faCellitate to spin out, he is responsible for all areas (but mainly defining digital processes and workflows for CRM, sales, logistics, digital marketing and automation).

How did you come up with the idea?

It was created in 2018 from a BASF research project by an interdisciplinary team consisting of chemists and biologists with long-term experience in material design. The resulting product ideas have been developed to market maturity in Chemovator, the internal venture builder of BASF.

What were the most important achievements for you?

  • Building a strong team
  • Successfully raising venture capital
  • Building a scalable global direct B2B distribution system + global sales partnership
  • Successfully launching new products

What was your greatest success?

It was finalizing the capital increase for faCellitate.

What was your favorite moment in your Chemovator Journey?

Every time the customer wrote a positive feedback about our products.

Your advice to aspiring founders?

All you need is love.