Microbio
Microbio is a Japanese Sendai-based biotech instrumentation company that designs and sells automated rapid microbial detection systems based on its proprietary Time-lapse Shadow Image Analysis (TSIA) platform, serving food/beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, research, and water-testing QC laboratories.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1999
- HeadquartersSendai, Japan
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
What Microbio does
Microbio is a Japanese biotechnology instrumentation company founded in 1998/1999 and headquartered in Sendai, with a customer support office in Tokyo. The company designs, manufactures, and sells automated rapid microbial detection systems used by quality-control laboratories in food and beverage manufacturing, pharmaceutical and cosmetic production, academic and research institutions, and water testing. Its core technological platform is Time-lapse Shadow Image Analysis (TSIA), a proprietary imaging and image-processing method that detects and enumerates microbial colonies in hours rather than the days required by conventional agar-plate culture, validated through a 2015 publication in Scientific Reports.
The company's product portfolio includes the MicroBio μ3D AutoScanner (flagship automated enumeration instrument), the Compac 25 (a smaller unit for coliform-negative testing), the Biomatic VDCS, the SensiMedia ready-to-use culture media kit line, conventional culture media, and a Plaque Assay device extending the TSIA platform to viral quantification. Microbio makes money through a combination of capital-equipment sales, a monthly lease package priced at ¥220,000/month that lowers entry cost for smaller labs, and recurring consumables (SensiMedia kits and culture media) consumed by installed instruments — a classic razor-and-blade model aligned with regulated QC workflows.
The company is privately held, founder-led by Hiroyuki Ogawa (Ph.D., CEO), with 11-50 employees and ¥322.75M in paid-in capital. It has historically been funded by Japanese government R&D grants (NEDO, METI, MAFF, MEXT, Sendai City) rather than external equity, and has received the MEXT Award in 2015. Distribution in Japan is supported by a partnership with BD Japan, while direct sales and customer support are operated from Sendai and Tokyo.
Microbio firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Microbio
- Legal name
- MicroBio Corporation
- Website
- https://microbio.co.jp
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1999
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Microbio is a Japanese Sendai-based biotech instrumentation company that designs and sells automated rapid microbial detection systems based on its proprietary Time-lapse Shadow Image Analysis (TSIA) platform, serving food/beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, research, and water-testing QC laboratories.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Microbio industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Microbial Detection Equipment
- NAICS
- Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516), Other Measuring and Controlling Device Manufacturing (334519), Navigational, Measuring, Electromedical, and Control Instruments Manufacturing (3345)
- SIC
- Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826), Industrial Instruments For Measurement, Display, And Control (3823)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Environmental Monitoring & Cleanroom Testing (GMP) (HLAGADAL)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Microbiological Water Testing (Coliform/E. coli, HPC, Legionella) (AFALAJAD), Environmental Microbiome/Baseline Trending & Data Analytics (EMP Trending, Mapping) (AFALAEAI), Microbiology & Infectious Disease Testing (Trial Support) (HLAGAEAF), Predictive Microbiology & Shelf-Life Risk Modeling (AFALAOAL)
Keywords
Where Microbio is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Sendai
- HQ country
- Japan
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices2 records
Markets served
Microbio business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Microbial Detection Equipment Sales: Sale of MicroBio μ3D AutoScanner and Biomatic VDCS instruments for automated microbial detection. Equipment ranges from compact 25-sample units to large 100-200 sample capacity systems.
- SensiMedia Test Kits: Disposable microbial detection test kits in various series (SM for 1ml, SML for 5-20ml, SMXL for 100ml+ samples) containing liquid culture media with integrated CO2 sensors. Used for qualitative testing.
- Culture Media Products: Sale of prepared agar media (PPM series), dehydrated agar media (DCM series), liquid culture media (LCM series), and anaerobic conditioning kits. Performance tested and documented with colony count graphs.
- Equipment Lease Package: Monthly rental package for MicroBio μ3D systems including maintenance support.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | MicroBio μ3D AutoScanner Lease Package with Maintenance |
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | MicroBio μ3D Compac 25 - Compact Detection System |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | SDM Series Prepared Agar Media - Surface inoculation type |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | PPM Series Prepared Plated Agar Media |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | SensiMedia SM Series (1ml sample) |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | SensiMedia SML Series (5-20ml sample) |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | SensiMedia SMXL Series (100ml+ sample) |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | DCM Dehydrated Agar Media - 400ml preparation |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | LCM Liquid Culture Media |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Anaerobic Conditioning Kit |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels4 records
Microbio product offering
Product offeringCore offering
MicroBio Corporation manufactures fully automated rapid microbial detection systems (MicroBio μ3D AutoScanner for agar media, MicroBio μ3D Compac 25 compact system, and Biomatic VDCS for liquid media), along with the SensiMedia disposable test kits and a full line of culture media (PPM prepared plates, DCM dehydrated media, LCM liquid media). The systems use Time-lapse Shadow Image Analysis and CO2 sensor chemistry to replace manual colony-counting workflows in industrial QA/QC and research laboratories.
Product overview
MicroBio Corporation is a manufacturer of fully automated rapid microbial detection systems, test kits, and fine culture media. The product portfolio consists of two core automated detection systems: MicroBio μ3D AutoScanner (for agar media, 100 samples) and MicroBio μ3D Compac 25 (compact version, 25 samples), both using Time-lapse Shadow Image Analysis for automated colony detection; and Biomatic VDCS (for liquid media/SensiMedia kits) which monitors CO2 sensors for automated detection. The SensiMedia rapid microbial detection kit line includes SM (1ml), SML (5-20ml), and SMXL (100ml+) formats for detecting various pathogens including coliform, E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, Bacillus cereus, O157, Staphylococcus aureus, Alicyclobacillus, and aerobes. Supporting consumables include prepared plated agar media (PPM), dehydrated powder media (DCM), liquid culture media (LCM), and anaerobic conditioning kits. All systems can be connected via LAN/internet for remote control and send automatic email alerts with colony images upon detection.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- MicroBio μ3D AutoScanner: Fully automated rapid microbial detection system for agar media using time-lapse shadow image analysis
- MicroBio μ3D Compac 25
- Biomatic VDCS
- SensiMedia
Products and services
- MicroBio μ3D AutoScanner Fully automated rapid microbial detection system for agar culture media that uses Time-lapse Shadow Image Analysis to detect and count micro-colonies during incubation, automatically emailing alerts with colony images. Handles 100 samples (90mm plates) per incubator module, scalable up to 1,000 samples by adding modules; supports aerobic, anaerobic, and high-temperature incubation.
- MicroBio μ3D Compac 25 Compact fully automated rapid microbial detection system for agar culture media, handling 25 samples simultaneously, optimized for coliform-negative and similar routine QC assays, with smartphone alert notifications and remote control capability.
- Biomatic VDCS Fully automated video monitoring system for SensiMedia liquid-culture test kits that checks CO2 sensors every minute, supports up to 50 SM/SML tubes simultaneously, and provides quantitative microbial growth-time measurement with real-time detection alerts.
- SensiMedia Rapid Microbial Detection Kit Disposable rapid microbial detection kit containing liquid culture media and an integrated CO2 sensor that changes color from deep blue to yellow upon microbial growth. Available in SM (1 ml), SML (5-20 ml), and SMXL (100 ml+) formats for qualitative detection of organisms including coliform, E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, Bacillus cereus, O157, Staphylococcus aureus, Alicyclobacillus, and aerobes (mold/yeast).
- PPM (Prepared Plated Agar Media) Pre-prepared plated agar media supplied with attached performance test reports including plate images and colony-count graphs. Includes Standard Plate Count, Salmonella Agar, PDA (CP added), SCDLP, GPLP, Desoxycholate, R2A, SCD, and Sabouraud media types; available in 100-plate and 240-plate packs with optional gamma-sterilized variants.
- DCM (Dehydrated Culture Media) Dehydrated powder agar media for laboratory preparation of culture media, including Salmonella Agar, Lactobacillus Agar, Lactobacillus hiochii, and Potato Dextrose Agar variants. Supplied in 400 ml preparation unit packs.
- LCM (Liquid Culture Media) Liquid culture media including Brain Heart Infusion Broth (BHI), Lactobacillus hiochii Broth, Lactobacillus Culture Broth, and specialty media such as LCMXL004 water-test pre-culture broth for 200 ml samples.
- Anaerobic Conditioning Kit Kit for conditioning agar plates to anaerobic atmosphere, comprising anaerobic bags, deoxidizers, oxygen indicators, and PE plates. Sold in 100-test packs (ANAERO-MB2) for use with MicroBio μ3D systems to enable anaerobe detection.
- MicroBio μ3D AutoScanner Lease Package (Rakuraku Introduction Pack) Monthly subscription-based lease package for the MicroBio μ3D AutoScanner system including maintenance support, providing customers fully automated rapid microbial detection without capital outlay for the equipment itself.
Companies that use Microbio
Customer profileSegments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Microbio technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability2 records
Feature6 records
Microbio partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- BD JapancoreBD Japan serves as the distributor for MicroBio μ3D AutoScanner products in Japan. The partnership provides local sales, support, and product promotion through BD Japan's customer network in the Japanese market.
Scale indicators2 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Microbio competitors and assessment
Company assessmentMarket position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Microbio compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Microbio financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Microbio leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Microbio funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Microbio 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 Microbio
What does Microbio do?
MicroBio Corporation manufactures fully automated rapid microbial detection systems (MicroBio μ3D AutoScanner for agar media, MicroBio μ3D Compac 25 compact system, and Biomatic VDCS for liquid media), along with the SensiMedia disposable test kits and a full line of culture media (PPM prepared plates, DCM dehydrated media, LCM liquid media). The systems use Time-lapse Shadow Image Analysis and CO2 sensor chemistry to replace manual colony-counting workflows in industrial QA/QC and research laboratories.
Is Microbio a public or private company?
Microbio is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Microbio founded?
Microbio was founded in 1999. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Microbio based?
Microbio is headquartered in Sendai, Japan, in the Asia region.
How does Microbio make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Microbial Detection Equipment Sales are the primary driver. The others are sensiMedia Test Kits, culture Media Products and equipment Lease Package.
Does Microbio have an API?
No public API is recorded for Microbio.
What industry is Microbio in?
Microbio's product category is Microbial Detection Equipment. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAGADAL, Environmental Monitoring & Cleanroom Testing (GMP), with a secondary code of AFALAJAD, Microbiological Water Testing (Coliform/E. coli, HPC, Legionella). Its NAICS code is 334516 and its SIC code is 3826.