What Cellvis does

Cellvis LLC is a privately held manufacturer of glass-bottom laboratory consumables designed for high-resolution live-cell imaging. Founded in 2007 (originally as In Vitro Scientific) and headquartered in Mountain View, California, the company produces four core product lines: glass-bottom dishes (various dish and micro-well sizes), glass-bottom plates in 1- to 384-well formats, chambered coverglass in 1- to 18-chamber configurations, and supporting accessories. The products integrate German cover glass with engineered optical properties (low visible-light absorption, high UV absorption) and USP Class VI adhesive, and are manufactured in a Class 100,000 cleanroom using direct injection molding for precision and reproducibility.

The company's technology platform is rooted in materials science and manufacturing process control rather than software or AI. USP Class VI certification addresses biocompatibility for long-term cell culture; solvent-resistant adhesive enables downstream assays using methanol and ethanol; and injection-molded construction reduces the variability inherent in manually cut alternatives. These design choices are validated by citation in over 6,000 scientific publications across confocal, widefield fluorescence, structured illumination microscopy (SIM), and super-resolution imaging workflows.

Cellvis operates a direct-to-consumer go-to-market through an e-commerce storefront with self-serve ordering, account registration, sample requests, and quote-based pricing, supplemented by a global distributor network for institutional buyers. Revenue is generated almost entirely through hardware sales of consumable labware, with no disclosed subscription, software, or service component. The company is bootstrapped (no external funding disclosed), employs 1–10 people, and serves a horizontal customer base of academic and industrial life sciences researchers conducting advanced cell culture and imaging work.

Name

Cellvis

Legal name

Cellvis LLC

Website

https://cellvis.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Cellvis LLC (formerly In Vitro Scientific) is a privately held Mountain View, California manufacturer of glass-bottom dishes, plates, and chambered coverglass consumables used by academic and industrial researchers for high-resolution live-cell imaging.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Life Science Labware

NAICS

Surgical and Medical Instrument Manufacturing (339112), Glass and Glass Product Manufacturing (32721)

SIC

Optical Instruments & Lenses (3827), Glass Products, Made Of Purchased Glass (3231)

akta.pro primary industry

Microscopy, Imaging & Flow Cytometry Instruments (HLAGAIAE)

Keywords

• Glass bottom dishes
• Cell culture labware
• Live cell imaging
• Glass bottom plates
• Fluorescence microscopy consumables

Headquarters

HQ city

Mountain View

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Labware Product Sales: Cellvis generates revenue through the sale of glass-bottom dishes, glass-bottom plates, chambered cover slides, and accessories for high-resolution live-cell imaging. Products are sold directly through their e-commerce website and through distributors.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Cellvis manufactures and sells glass-bottom dishes, glass-bottom plates (1/6/12/24/96/384-well), chambered coverglass (1/2/4/8/18-chamber), and related accessories for high-resolution live-cell imaging. Products are produced in a Class 100,000 cleanroom using German cover glass and USP Class VI adhesive, and are targeted at life sciences researchers performing confocal, widefield fluorescence, SIM, and super-resolution microscopy.

Product overview

Cellvis (formerly In Vitro Scientific) is a specialized manufacturer of high-resolution live-cell imaging laboratory consumables. The company offers a unified portfolio of four core product lines: Glass Bottom Dishes (available in various dish sizes with micro-well options), Glass Bottom Plates (spanning 1-, 6-, 12-, 24-, 96-, and 384-well formats), Chambered Coverglass (in 1-, 2-, 4-, 8-, and 18-chamber configurations with different cover glass thicknesses), and Accessories. All products are manufactured in a Class 100,000 cleanroom using USP Class VI adhesive and German cover glass, and are cited by over 6,000 scientific publications. The products are designed for confocal and widefield fluorescence microscopy applications in research settings.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Glass Bottom Dishes Glass-bottom dishes available in various dish sizes and micro-well sizes for high-resolution live-cell imaging applications including confocal and widefield fluorescence microscopy. Designed for life sciences researchers.
• Glass Bottom Plates (1/6/12/24/96/384-well) Multi-well glass-bottom plates in 1-, 6-, 12-, 24-, 96-, and 384-well formats designed for high-resolution imaging workflows in microscopy applications. Designed for high-throughput screening and advanced imaging.
• Chambered Coverglass Chambered coverslips available in 1-, 2-, 4-, 8-, and 18-chamber configurations with different cover glass types and thicknesses for high-resolution live-cell imaging. Designed for researchers requiring flexible chamber formats.
• Accessories Supporting accessories for glass-bottom dishes and plates including plate lids with cover glass for laboratory imaging workflows.

Quantifiable outcome

• Products cited in 6,000+ scientific publications

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Labshake.comminorOthersCellvis uses the citation service offered by labshake.com to display publications that cited their products on bioRxiv since 2019. This is a service relationship for managing publication citations, not a product or commercial partnership.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• ibidi: ibidi is the closest direct competitor, manufacturing μ-Slide, μ-Dish, and μ-Plate products with integrated glass-bottom or bioinert surfaces for high-resolution live-cell imaging. Cellvis and ibidi compete head-to-head for the same academic and pharma imaging-research buyers across essentially the same product formats.
• MatTek: MatTek (MatTek Life Sciences) produces glass-bottom dishes, plates, and EpiDerm tissue models for live-cell imaging and in vitro research. It competes with Cellvis in the same glass-bottom live-cell imaging labware category, particularly for researchers using confocal and fluorescence microscopy.

Broad incumbents

• Thermo Fisher Scientific: Through its Nunc Lab-Tek and BioLite product lines, Thermo Fisher offers chambered coverglass and glass-bottom culture vessels used in the same live-cell imaging workflows as Cellvis. It is a broad incumbent with overlapping products sold alongside a much larger life sciences portfolio.
• Corning Life Sciences: Corning offers glass-bottom microplates (e.g., Corning Glass Bottom Culture Microplates) and specialty cell culture surfaces used in advanced imaging. It competes with Cellvis on multi-well glass-bottom plates while serving a much broader labware and cell culture customer base.
• Eppendorf: Eppendorf supplies cell culture consumables and imaging-grade plates and dishes used in microscopy. It offers a broader portfolio (centrifuges, pipettes, bioreactors) but its glass-bottom dishes and µ-plates overlap with Cellvis's core offering for live-cell imaging customers.
• Greiner Bio-One: Greiner Bio-One manufactures cell culture plates including glass-bottom µClear plates in standard SBS formats used in high-content imaging. Its plates are commonly considered by the same researchers evaluating Cellvis's 96- and 384-well imaging plates.
• Sarstedt: Sarstedt produces cell culture dishes, plates, and chamber slides used in microscopy and live-cell imaging. Its µ-Slide family and imaging-grade surfaces overlap with Cellvis's core product range for academic and clinical research customers.

Others

• Carl Zeiss Microscopy: Zeiss manufactures the high-end microscopes (LSM confocal, Elyra SIM, etc.) that consume glass-bottom dishes and plates from suppliers like Cellvis. It is an adjacent ecosystem participant whose installed base drives demand for Cellvis's imaging labware, rather than a direct competitor.
• Nikon Instruments (Eclipse/Ti2 + BioImaging): Nikon produces inverted microscope systems and live-cell imaging workstations commonly used with glass-bottom plates and dishes like Cellvis's. It is a complementary enabler in the live-cell imaging workflow rather than a competing labware supplier.

Emerging players

• WillCo Wells: WillCo Wells manufactures glass-bottom dishes and dishes with various glass thicknesses for high-resolution microscopy, overlapping with Cellvis's niche. It is a smaller specialty competitor that often appears on shortlists for academic live-cell imaging purchases.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cellvis