Kytopen
Kytopen is an MIT spinout developing the Flowfect® platform, a non-viral electro-mechanical continuous-flow gene delivery system that enables high-throughput cell therapy discovery and GMP-scale manufacturing of engineered cell therapies for biopharmaceutical companies, CDMOs, and academic medical centers.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersCambridge, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
What Kytopen does
Kytopen is a private biotechnology tools company founded in 2017 as an MIT spinout, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts with an R&D site in Louisville, Colorado. The company develops the Flowfect® platform, a non-viral gene delivery system that combines continuous fluid flow with electric fields to deliver payloads such as mRNA, DNA, and CRISPR Cas9 RNP to primary cells. The platform is offered in two primary instruments: Flowfect Discover™, an automated small-volume high-throughput system capable of running up to 96 transfection conditions in approximately 10 minutes for discovery and process optimization, and Flowfect Tx®, a closed-system GMP-compatible instrument for clinical and commercial manufacturing that processes billions of cells per minute. Proprietary consumables — Flowfect Tx Uni Cartridge, Flowfect Discover Tips, and Flowfect Uni and Omni Buffers — accompany the instruments and create a recurring revenue stream.
Kytopen sells and supports the Flowfect platform through a direct enterprise sales motion targeting biopharmaceutical companies developing CAR-T, NK cell, stem cell, and emerging modalities; CDMOs providing process development and manufacturing services; and academic translational medical centers conducting discovery research. The company also operates a structured six-month Technology Access Program (TAP) in which partners receive a Flowfect Tx system and hands-on support from Kytopen's field applications team to move therapeutics from proof-of-concept through process development and clinical manufacturing. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed; products are offered as Research Use Only (RUO) with GMP-grade configurations available for clinical manufacturing. The Flowfect Tx system has a Drug Master File on file with the U.S. FDA, and Kytopen has established technology access agreements and CDMO channel partnerships with organizations including BioCentriq, Charles River Laboratories, Mirus Bio, RoosterBio, Excellos, T-CURX, Fraunhofer IZI, TQ Therapeutics, and BlueWhale Bio.
The company has raised approximately $36.6 million in disclosed equity funding (a $3.6M seed led by The Engine in 2019, a $30M Series A led by Northpond Ventures in 2021, and an undisclosed Series B led by Telegraph Hill Partners announced April 2026), supplemented by NIH SBIR and NSF grants. As of the available data, Kytopen operates with 11–50 employees under the leadership of CEO Michael Chiu, Ph.D. (appointed August 2023) and Chief Commercial Officer Kevin Gutshall (appointed April 2024), with a Scientific Advisory Board of seven leading academic researchers from MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Rice, Boston University, and Northeastern University.
Kytopen firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Kytopen
- Legal name
- Kytopen Corp.
- Website
- https://kytopen.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Kytopen is an MIT spinout developing the Flowfect® platform, a non-viral electro-mechanical continuous-flow gene delivery system that enables high-throughput cell therapy discovery and GMP-scale manufacturing of engineered cell therapies for biopharmaceutical companies, CDMOs, and academic medical centers.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Kytopen industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Cell Therapy Manufacturing Equipment
- NAICS
- Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516)
- SIC
- Surgical & Medical Instruments & Apparatus (3841)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Non-viral Gene Delivery & Gene Therapy (LNP, polymers, electroporation, physical methods) (HLAAACAC)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Laboratory Automation, Sample Prep & Liquid Handling (IVD Lab Diagnostics) (HLAHAAAN)
Keywords
Where Kytopen is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Cambridge
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Kytopen business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Flowfect® Platform Sales and Service: Kytopen sells and supports its Flowfect Discover™ and Flowfect Tx™ instruments and associated consumables (Flowfect Tx™ Uni Cartridge, Flowfect Discover™ Tips, and Flowfect® Uni and Omni Buffers) to biopharmaceutical companies, CDMOs, and academic medical centers. The company also generates revenue through its Technology Access Program (TAP) which provides partners with a manufacturing system and hands-on field applications support.
- Technology Access Program (TAP): TAP is a structured six-month engagement in which Kytopen works closely with partners to validate technical needs on the Flowfect platform, transfer processes, and optimize workflows for manufacturing scale. Partners pay for access to the platform, applications support, and process development services, moving therapeutics from proof-of-concept through clinical and commercial manufacturing.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Kytopen product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Kytopen develops and sells the Flowfect® non-viral gene delivery platform — instruments and proprietary consumables that combine continuous fluid flow with electric fields to deliver mRNA, DNA, and CRISPR Cas9 RNP into primary cells. The platform spans two instruments: Flowfect Discover™ for automated high-throughput small-volume optimization and Flowfect Tx® for closed-system large-scale GMP-compatible manufacturing, supported by the Technology Access Program (TAP) service engagement.
Product overview
Kytopen offers the Flowfect® platform, a non-viral gene delivery system that combines continuous fluid flow with electric fields to deliver payloads such as mRNA, DNA, and CRISPR Cas9 RNP to cells. The platform consists of two instrument products — Flowfect Discover™ for small-volume, high-throughput discovery and optimization (96-well format, up to 96 conditions in ~10–15 minutes), and Flowfect Tx® for large-scale clinical and commercial manufacturing (billions of cells in minutes, available in both RUO and GMP versions) — supported by a portfolio of proprietary consumables including the Flowfect Tx® Uni Cartridge, Flowfect Discover™ Tips, and Flowfect® Uni and Omni Buffers. The platform is designed for predictive scaling: parameters optimized on Flowfect Discover™ translate directly to Flowfect Tx® manufacturing runs, enabling a single technology to span discovery through GMP production.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Flowfect: Non-viral gene delivery platform combining continuous fluid flow with electric fields for high-efficiency delivery of payloads such as mRNA, DNA, and CRISPR Cas9 RNP to cells.
- Flowfect Discover
- Flowfect Tx
- Technology Access Program (TAP)
Products and services
- Flowfect Discover™ Platform Automated small-volume liquid-handling platform that performs high-throughput transfections for drug discovery, screening, and process optimization, using continuous flow transfection to retain cell functionality. Runs up to 96 separate conditions in a single run of approximately 10 minutes for sample volumes ranging from 50–100 µL, compatible with standard liquid handling consumables such as HSP9655 96-well plates. For research use only.
- Flowfect Tx® Platform Closed-system transfection instrument that enables large-scale payload delivery to billions of cells within minutes, processing 10–50 million cells per mL at 25–50 mL per minute with no batch volume limitations. Compatible with standard cell therapy and off-the-shelf bioprocessing bags, and available in both Research Use Only (RUO) and GMP-grade versions for clinical manufacturing.
- Flowfect Tx® Uni Cartridge Single-use cartridge companion to the Flowfect Tx® platform, supporting large-scale transfection workflows.
- Flowfect Discover™ Tips Specialized pipette tips designed for use with the Flowfect Discover™ platform.
- Flowfect® Uni and Omni Buffers Proprietary buffer solutions (Uni and Omni variants) that accompany Kytopen's Flowfect® devices to support transfection workflows.
- Technology Access Program (TAP) Structured six-month engagement in which Kytopen works closely with partners to validate technical needs on the Flowfect platform, transfer processes, and optimize workflows for manufacturing scale, including hands-on field applications support for clinical and commercial manufacturing of cell therapies.
Quantifiable outcome
- Reduces cell therapy manufacturing time from weeks to days
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Kytopen
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Kytopen technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
Feature6 records
Kytopen partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- T-CURXcoreKytopen entered a technology access agreement with T-CURX (initially February 2025, expanded April 2026) to provide access to its Flowfect Tx® cellular engineering platform. The expanded partnership integrates Kytopen's continuous-flow transfection technology with T-CURX's proprietary transposon-based gene transfer system.
- Fraunhofer IZIcoreFraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI) joined Kytopen and T-CURX to establish a joint Center of Excellence for advanced non-viral cell therapies. Fraunhofer IZI leads process development and manufacturing scale-up efforts in Germany for the partnership.
- TQ TherapeuticscoreKytopen expanded its partnership with TQ Therapeutics through a technology access agreement, providing access to its Flowfect Tx® cellular engineering platform to support TQ's development of in vivo cell therapies. The collaboration integrates Kytopen's technology into TQ's CELLfinity platform for autologous mRNA T-cell therapies.
- ExcellosminorKytopen and Excellos announced a collaboration to develop scalable, non-viral cell therapy manufacturing technologies, focusing on the compatibility of Kytopen's Flowfect Tx® platform with Excellos' donor-to-dose manufacturing model. The joint effort aims to improve process consistency, scalability, and cell quality.
- BlueWhale BiominorKytopen and BlueWhale Bio joined forces to develop a non-viral cell therapy manufacturing workflow, combining their respective technologies and expertise.
- Bio-TechneminorKytopen and Bio-Techne collaborated on an integrated cellular engineering workflow to expedite cell therapy manufacturing by combining Kytopen's Flowfect® platform with Bio-Techne's cellular analysis and reagent products.
- Charles River LaboratoriescoreCharles River Laboratories was commissioned by Kytopen to conduct in vivo preclinical studies validating large-scale production and enhanced efficacy of Flowfect™ engineered-NK cell therapies under the NIH Phase II SBIR award. Charles River also completed a comparative study demonstrating Flowfect Tx™ outperforms conventional electroporation platforms in primary T-cell editing.
- RoosterBiominorRoosterBio collaborated with Kytopen to develop exosome loading applications using Flowfect® technology for mesenchymal stem/stromal cell (MSC)-derived extracellular vesicles with potential broad utility for advanced therapy developers.
- Ganymede BiocoreKytopen partnered with Ganymede Bio to integrate its Lab-as-Code™ cloud data platform with Kytopen's Flowfect Discover™ and Flowfect Tx™ instruments. The integration enables FAIR-compliant structured data from Flowfect instruments to be published directly to the cloud, integrating with customer ELNs, LIMS, and data pipelines for automated data management.
- Omid Veiseh Laboratory (Rice University)coreKytopen collaborated with the Omid Veiseh Laboratory at Rice University to place both Flowfect Discover™ and Flowfect Tx™ platforms at the translational medical research lab. The collaboration drives cutting-edge genome engineering research and expedites discovery of novel cell therapies for cancer, autoimmunity, metabolic regulation, wound healing, and infectious diseases.
- Mirus BiocoreKytopen partnered with Mirus Bio, a pioneering transfection reagent company with over 25 years of experience, to combine Mirus Bio's nucleic acid delivery chemistry expertise with Kytopen's electro-mechanical continuous transfection technology. The collaboration aims to enable scalable genome engineering with complex payloads to traditionally difficult-to-manipulate primary cell types while improving production yields.
- Paul K. Wotton, Ph.D.corePaul K. Wotton, Ph.D. (former CEO of Obsidian Therapeutics, board member of Vericel Corporation and Cynata Therapeutics) was appointed Chair of Kytopen's Board of Directors, bringing 35 years of experience building private and public biopharmaceutical companies.
- BioCentriqcoreBioCentriq, a cell and gene therapy CDMO (purchased by GC of South Korea for $73M), partnered with Kytopen to test and validate Flowfect® technology for T-cell transfection. The partnership was extended in 2023 to include the Flowfect Discover™ platform for rapid optimization prior to manufacturing scale-up. BioCentriq serves as a preferred development and manufacturing partner for developers using Kytopen's technology.
Scale indicators13 records
Recent moves2 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Kytopen competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- MaxCyte: MaxCyte is the leading commercial-scale electroporation platform for cell therapy manufacturing, offering the ExPERT™ flow electroporation systems used by virtually all major CAR-T developers. It is the most direct competitor to Kytopen's Flowfect Tx™ in non-viral gene delivery for clinical and commercial cell therapy manufacturing.
Broad incumbents
- Lonza (Nucleofector): Lonza is a global CDMO and life sciences tools provider whose Nucleofector™ platform is a foundational non-viral transfection technology widely used in cell therapy research and process development. As a broad incumbent with deep CDMO relationships, Lonza competes with Kytopen across the cell therapy workflow and could bundle transfection with manufacturing services.
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (CTS Xenon): Thermo Fisher's Gibco CTS Xenon™ Electroporation System is a major electroporation platform targeted at cell therapy manufacturing. As a broad life sciences incumbent with massive distribution, Thermo Fisher competes head-to-head with Flowfect Tx™ and benefits from bundled reagent, instrument, and service offerings.
Emerging players
- CellFE: CellFE is a private biotech tool company developing a microfluidics-based rapid transfection platform for cell therapy manufacturing. It is a direct emerging competitor to Kytopen's Flowfect technology, targeting similar non-viral gene delivery applications; notably, Kytopen's CCO Kevin Gutshall previously served as CellFE's Chief Business Officer.
- Celetrix: Celetrix manufactures electroporation devices and reagents used in cell therapy and gene editing research and manufacturing. It is a niche emerging competitor in non-viral gene delivery, with overlapping customer base in academic and early-stage commercial cell therapy developers.
Others
- Mirus Bio: Mirus Bio is a leading nucleic acid delivery reagent company (now part of Roche) with deep expertise in transfection chemistry. It is a strategic partner of Kytopen (combining Mirus chemistry with Flowfect hardware) and also a partial competitor via its standalone reagent offerings for viral and non-viral delivery.
- Bio-Techne: Bio-Techne is a major life sciences reagent and analytical tools provider with deep presence in cell therapy and gene editing workflows. It is both a strategic partner of Kytopen (integrated workflow collaboration) and a broad incumbent whose reagents and analytical platforms are adjacent to Flowfect's gene delivery value chain.
Regional players
- BioCentriq: BioCentriq is a U.S.-based cell and gene therapy CDMO (acquired by GC of South Korea) that has adopted Kytopen's Flowfect technology and serves as a preferred development and manufacturing partner. It is a customer and channel influencer rather than a direct competitor, but its adoption of Flowfect sets a competitive benchmark for other CDMOs.
Market position
Strengths1 record
Weaknesses1 record
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Kytopen social profiles
Digital presenceKytopen financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Kytopen leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles15 records
Kytopen funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds14 records
Investors14 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Kytopen M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Kytopen
What does Kytopen do?
Kytopen develops and sells the Flowfect® non-viral gene delivery platform — instruments and proprietary consumables that combine continuous fluid flow with electric fields to deliver mRNA, DNA, and CRISPR Cas9 RNP into primary cells. The platform spans two instruments: Flowfect Discover™ for automated high-throughput small-volume optimization and Flowfect Tx® for closed-system large-scale GMP-compatible manufacturing, supported by the Technology Access Program (TAP) service engagement.
Is Kytopen a public or private company?
Kytopen is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Kytopen founded?
Kytopen was founded in 2017. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Kytopen based?
Kytopen is headquartered in Cambridge, United States, in the North America region.
How does Kytopen make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Flowfect® Platform Sales and Service is the primary driver. The others are technology Access Program (TAP).
Who are Kytopen's main competitors?
MaxCyte is listed as a direct peer. Broad incumbents are Lonza (Nucleofector) and Thermo Fisher Scientific (CTS Xenon). Emerging players are CellFE and Celetrix. Others are Mirus Bio and Bio-Techne. BioCentriq is listed as a regional player.
Does Kytopen have an API?
No public API is recorded for Kytopen.
What industry is Kytopen in?
Kytopen's product category is Cell Therapy Manufacturing Equipment. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAAACAC, Non-viral Gene Delivery & Gene Therapy (LNP, polymers, electroporation, physical methods), with a secondary code of HLAHAAAN, Laboratory Automation, Sample Prep & Liquid Handling (IVD Lab Diagnostics). Its NAICS code is 334516 and its SIC code is 3841.