BICO (formerly CELLINK): How an EIC-backed bioink turned a Gothenburg lab project into a bioprinting unicorn

Brussels, June 7th 2022

Summary

›BICO, founded as CELLINK in Gothenburg in 2016, commercialised the world’s first universal bioink and scaled into a leader in 3D bioprinting.
›The company reports tens of thousands of bioprinting systems in the field and says its technology reduces the need for animal testing and speeds drug development.
›BICO reached roughly USD 1 billion valuation within five years and was the first European Innovation Council backed company to become a unicorn.
›The technology remains promising but faces well known scientific, manufacturing and regulatory hurdles before routine clinical organ replacement is possible.
›BICO credits EIC funding and ecosystem support as an essential factor in its early scale up and recommends other startups to seek similar help.

BICO (formerly CELLINK): scaling a bioink from lab discovery to commercial bioprinting

Bioprinting sits at the intersection of materials science, cell biology and precision engineering. A small Gothenburg company took a biomaterial innovation invented at Chalmers University and built a global business around enabling researchers to 3D print living human tissues. That company, founded in 2016 as CELLINK and now known as BICO, positions itself as the world’s first bioink company and one of Europe’s headline deep tech success stories. The firm says its technologies are being used across drug development, tissue engineering and three dimensional cell culture, and that its products reduce reliance on animal models. The company also attributes much of its early growth to support from the European Innovation Council.

Origin story and core innovation

The technical and commercial starting point for CELLINK was a biomaterial created at Chalmers University by Professor Paul Gatenholm. The material was developed so that human cells could be suspended and maintained outside the body while retaining key cellular functions. In 2015, Erik Gatenholm met cofounder Hector Martinez in the lab where the material originated and they decided to found a company to commercialise the bioink. The company launched in 2016 and pursued an integrated strategy of selling both biomaterials and bioprinting hardware and software.

Bioink:A bioink is a biologically compatible material formulation that can carry living cells and support their survival and organization after being deposited by a bioprinter. Bioinks combine polymers, extracellular matrix components and sometimes signalling molecules to mimic a tissue environment. The key challenges for bioinks are maintaining cell viability during printing, providing mechanical support, and permitting cells to mature and form functional structures.

Bioprinting:Bioprinting adapts three dimensional printing techniques to deposit cells and biomaterials with spatial precision. Approaches include extrusion, inkjet style droplet printing and laser assisted deposition. The immediate research use cases are three dimensional in vitro models such as organoids and tissue constructs that are closer to human physiology than two dimensional cell cultures. Moving from research models to clinically implantable organs introduces additional biological and engineering hurdles.

Scale, claims and milestones

CELLINK marketed itself aggressively and reported rapid uptake among research labs. The company stated that within a few years it had placed thousands of systems globally and that its bioink helped create a growing ecosystem of users. The company also reported rapid capital markets success and notable valuation milestones.

Metric or claim	Figure reported in source	Notes and context
Founding year	2016	Founded by Erik Gatenholm and Hector Martinez to commercialise Chalmers bioink
Bioink origin	Chalmers University, Professor Paul Gatenholm	Acquired by the company for commercialisation
Systems in field	More than 25,000 systems	Used by academic and industry researchers globally according to the company
Researchers using systems	Over 3,000 scientists	Across more than 65 countries as reported
Unicorn valuation	Reached USD 1 billion within five years	Company highlighted it as the first EIC-funded unicorn
Animal lives saved	Approximately 100,000 in 2021	Company claim that its models reduced animal use in research
Market size cited	Bioprinting USD 2 billion market in 2025	Market estimates vary and should be treated as projections

Intended benefits and societal claims

BICO frames its technology as addressing two linked problems. First, there is a chronic shortage of donor organs and long transplant waiting lists in Europe and worldwide. Second, drug development remains slow, costly and dependent on animal models that have limitations in predicting human responses. The company positions bioprinted human tissue models as a way to accelerate preclinical testing, reduce the use of animals, and ultimately enable regenerative therapies.

Reduction of animal testing:The company reported that its products and models reduced the use of animals in research, claiming roughly 100,000 animal lives spared in 2021. Replacing animal studies with validated human tissue models is a genuine objective across EU research policy. However measuring exact numbers across distributed research projects is complex and claims should be calibrated against independent verification and standardised metrics.

Where the technology still faces limits

Bioprinting for research and drug screening has advanced rapidly, but several technical and regulatory challenges remain before routine clinical organ replacement becomes feasible. Key scientific issues are vascularisation to supply printed tissues with oxygen and nutrients, long term functional integration of printed tissue with the body, immune compatibility and reproducible manufacturing at scale. On the regulatory side, agencies will require rigorous preclinical and clinical evidence before approving implantable living tissues or organs. These are not insurmountable obstacles but they temper near term clinical expectations.

Vascularisation and scale:Creating functional blood vessel networks inside printed tissues is critical for any construct beyond a few hundred micrometres in thickness. Researchers employ co printed endothelial cells, sacrificial materials and bioreactor conditioning to promote vascular networks. Translating these methods into reliable, manufacturable products remains an active area of research.

Funding, EIC support and ecosystem context

CELLINK/BICO credits the European Innovation Council with playing a significant role in its early growth. The company described EIC funding and access to infrastructure as essential to reaching scale. The EIC provides a mix of grants, scale up instruments and advisory services targeted at high risk deep tech. In broader EU innovation policy, examples like BICO demonstrate how public early stage support can help move laboratory inventions toward commercial products, while also highlighting that subsequent private capital and international market adoption remain necessary to build large companies.

EIC support:The European Innovation Council offers Pathfinder grants for early stage research and Accelerator grants and investments for scaling companies. Beneficiaries receive funding, coaching and ecosystem access. CELLINK described the EIC contribution as essential to its existence and recommended other start ups to pursue EIC support and attend EIC events for networking and mentoring.

Founder perspective and public recognition

Erik Gatenholm, founder and CEO, was named among Forbes Europe 30 Under 30 in Industry in 2018. In public comments he has emphasised a mission to reduce transplant shortages and speed drug development. He has also spoken publicly about ambitions for much larger valuations and continued growth. Those ambitions reflect the high expectations common in deep tech and medtech sectors, and they depend on both scientific progress and commercial execution.

A cautious assessment for policymakers and investors

BICO’s trajectory illustrates how university invention plus targeted public support can create commercial momentum. The company has genuine technology assets and a large installed base in research labs. That gives it an advantage in shaping early standards and customer workflows. At the same time, the path from research tools to routine clinical organ manufacture is long and capital intensive. Policymakers and investors should continue to support translational science, validation pathways and regulatory frameworks. They should also maintain realistic expectations about timelines for clinical application and the evidence needed to move from in vitro models to approved therapies.

Practical takeaways for startups in the EU deep tech ecosystem

1. University lab inventions can become companies but require both product focus and operational scale up. 2. Public funding such as EIC grants can be catalytic, especially when combined with access to mentors and international networks. 3. Claims about societal impact need measurable, independently verifiable metrics to build credibility. 4. In life sciences, managing the science regulatory and manufacturing nexus is key to long term value creation.

Events and further information

The original coverage noted a forthcoming EIC Scale up 100 Info Day on 14 June for companies interested in scaling with EIC support. Readers interested in EU funding and support for scale up should consult the European Innovation Council and EISMEA programme pages for the latest calls and events.

Sources and notes

This article is based on material published by the European Innovation Council on 7 June 2022 about CELLINK and subsequent publicly available company statements describing BICO. Where the company made numerical claims these were reported as stated. Market estimates and projected impacts are inherently uncertain and depend on scientific regulatory and commercial progress.