Accuri Cytometers nearly doubles staff, takes in another $4 million in VC

Ann Arbor’s Accuri Cytometers continues to blaze big trails toward rapid growth, bringing in millions in financing and creating dozens of new jobs.The Ann Arbor-based firm nailed down $4 million Series D financing (think venture capital funding) from the likes of Fidelity Biosciences, Flagship Ventures, Baird Venture Partners, Arboretum Ventures and InvestMichigan! The money is expected to help push forward the commercialization of its Accuri C6 Flow Cytometer System and open up markets in Europe and elsewhere around the world.  “This is expected to take us through to profitability,” says Jen Baird, CEO of Accuri Cytometers. The company has already growing its payroll at a rapid clip. It employed 32 people as of last fall when we last checked in with the company. Since then it has nearly doubled that number to 60 people. It expects to continue adding people this year to facilitate its rapid growth. This latest round of financing is on top of the $15 million in venture capital the company took in last year. That round of funding includes $1.9 million from Michigan’s 21st Century Jobs Fund. Accuri Cytometers, a University of Michigan spin-off, specializes in making the cytomer systems that measure T-cell counts (among other things), which is an instrumental tool in tracking and treating diseases like AIDS and cancer. It is a research field with lots of room to grow in both the near and long term. Source: Jen Baird, CEO of Accuri Cytometers Writer: Jon Zemke