Imtakt USA

What Imtakt USA does

Imtakt USA operates the US distribution presence of Imtakt Corporation (Japan), a specialty manufacturer of High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) columns headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 2003 in Portland and structured as a private subsidiary with 11-50 employees, the US entity serves as the direct e-commerce storefront at imtaktusa.com and the regional customer support arm for the parent company's HPLC column portfolio. The parent company is described as having 'exceptional craftsmanship and decades of industry experience' designing and manufacturing chromatography columns.

Imtakt's core technology centers on proprietary silica-based and dual-matrix stationary phase chemistries spanning 8 column families and 20+ products: the Unison series (traditional stationary phases), Cadenza series (high-resolution ODS including HS-C18 for direct serum injection), Scherzo (dual ion-exchange multimode ODS), Nardis (phenyl-based hybrid selectivities), Intrada (life-sciences including Amino Acid, Organic Acid, SEC, WP-RP), Presto FF-C18 (2μm non-porous ODS), and DACAPO DX-C18 (silica/polymer dual-matrix for alkali mobile phases). The portfolio includes multiple 'world's first' innovations such as non-derivatized LC-MS amino acid analysis, direct plasma injection without protein precipitation, and pH 1-12 column operation. A metal-free PEEK column construction variant is offered across multiple stationary phases for coordination compound analysis.

The business model is primarily hardware sales of proprietary catalog columns via direct e-commerce (imtaktusa.com) and Imtakt Corporation's Global Distribution Network, with quote-based non-publicly-disclosed pricing. Revenue is augmented by co-developed analytical solutions (e.g., the HiPep + Intrada Amino Acid high-throughput amino acid system) and by deep OEM co-marketing with all major LC-MS instrument vendors (Shimadzu, Agilent, Thermo Fisher, Waters, Sciex, Bruker, PerkinElmer, Advion), which validates columns on the dominant instrument platforms. Customers span pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical R&D (Amgen, MedImmune, Mallinckrodt, GSK, TOWA Pharmaceutical), academic and government research (Inha University, KIST, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, University of Utah / ARUP), clinical and diagnostic laboratories, analytical instrument manufacturers, and food/beverage testing laboratories. The company drives awareness through an extensive proprietary application database (77+ entries for the flagship Intrada Amino Acid column), technical information library, scientific conference presence (ASMS, MSACL, HPLC), and the MOLECULES in CHROMATOGRAPHY educational series.

Name

Imtakt USA

Legal name

Imtakt Corporation

Website

https://imtaktusa.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Imtakt USA distributes proprietary HPLC and LC-MS columns designed by parent Imtakt Corporation (Japan), selling through direct e-commerce and a global distributor network to pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, academic, clinical, and analytical instrument OEM customers worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Chromatography Consumables

NAICS

Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516)

SIC

Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826)

akta.pro primary industry

Mass Spectrometry & Spectroscopy Instruments (HLAGAIAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Analytical Instruments & Chromatography Systems (HLAGAIAA)

Keywords

• HPLC columns
• LC-MS columns
• Chromatography consumables
• Stationary phase chemistry
• Analytical separation columns

Headquarters

HQ city

Portland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. HPLC Column Product Sales: Primary revenue stream from selling proprietary HPLC columns (Cadenza, Unison, Scherzo, Intrada, Nardis, Presto, DACAPO product lines) plus associated guard columns, cartridges, holders, and metal-free variants. Each column is sold as a discrete product with SKU-based product codes; wide range of inner diameters (0.075-10mm) and lengths (10-250mm) supports tiered product pricing.
2. Co-developed Analytical Solutions: Revenue from collaborative solutions such as the High-Throughput Amino Acid Composition Analysis System co-developed with HiPep Research Institute (Japan), combining HiPep's AHST-10/AHST-16 hydrolysis device with Imtakt's Intrada Amino Acid column.

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Imtakt USA distributes HPLC columns designed and manufactured by parent Imtakt Corporation (Japan), selling seven column families (Cadenza, Unison, Scherzo, Intrada, Nardis, Presto, Dacapo) with 20+ distinct columns featuring proprietary silica-based and dual-matrix stationary phase chemistries for reversed-phase, ion-exchange, HILIC, size-exclusion, and multi-mode separations. The portfolio targets pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, clinical, food testing, and academic research applications requiring high-resolution chromatographic separations including direct serum/plasma injection and LC-MS compatible non-derivatized amino acid analysis.

Product overview

Imtakt USA distributes HPLC columns designed and manufactured by Imtakt Corporation (Japan) for chromatographers requiring high-resolution separations across a wide range of applications. The portfolio is organized as a platform-plus-modules architecture built around distinct column families: the Unison series (UK-C18, UK-C8, UK-C1, UK-Phenyl, UK-Silica, UK-Amino) for traditional stationary phases; the Cadenza series (CD-C18, CL-C18, CX-C18, CW-C18, HS-C18) as a high-resolution multifunctional ODS family; the Scherzo C18 family as the world's first dual ion-exchange multimode ODS columns; the Nardis series (ND-NX, ND-RX, NF-PFP/Biphenyl) offering distinct ion-exchange and phenyl-based selectivities; the Intrada life-sciences series (Amino Acid, Organic Acid, SEC, WP-RP) for biomolecule and LC-MS applications; Presto FF-C18 as the world's only 2 μm non-porous ODS column; and Dacapo DX-C18, the world's first silica/polymer dual-matrix ODS column for alkali mobile phases. The Metal-Free Column option is an add-on hardware variant available across multiple stationary phases, using PEEK wetted parts to improve peak shapes for coordination and phosphorylated compounds.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Cadenza: Family of high-resolution, multifunctional ODS HPLC columns (CD-C18, CL-C18, CX-C18, CW-C18, HS-C18)
• Unison
• Scherzo
• Nardis
• Intrada
• Presto
• Dacapo

Products and services

• Unison UK-C18 HPLC Column A next-generation 3 μm ODS column providing high resolution and speed with wide polarity compatibility from high to low polarity compounds; serves traditional reversed-phase chromatography applications for pharmaceutical, food, and academic research users.
• Unison UK-C8 HPLC Column A balanced hydrophobicity user-friendly reversed-phase column with wide compatibility from high to low polarity compounds; suitable for pharmaceutical, lipid, and general LC-MS analyses.
• Unison UK-C1 HPLC Column A novel acid-resistant C1 phase (e.g., formic acid, TFA) with broad compatibility from high to low polarity compounds.
• Unison UK-Phenyl HPLC Column A C4-like hydrophobic reversed-phase column with π-electron interactions, suitable for coordination compounds and isomer separation.
• Unison UK-Silica HPLC Column A single column for both non-aqueous and aqueous applications, providing high-performance silica with LC-MS compatibility.
• Unison UK-Amino HPLC Column A superior amino column with excellent durability, LC-MS compatible for normal-phase, anion-exchange, and sugar analysis.
• Cadenza CD-C18 HPLC Column An ODS column with approximately 50,000 theoretical plates per column, high-density ODS, and unique end-capping for high separation performance.
• Cadenza CL-C18 HPLC Column A silanol-controlled ODS column with new concept end-capping, providing different separation compared to CD-C18.
• Cadenza CX-C18 HPLC Column A general-purpose ODS column with newly developed polar group end-capping, providing excellent peak response under formic acid conditions.
• Cadenza CW-C18 HPLC Column A wide-pore ODS column suitable for slightly larger compounds, basic compounds, and high-throughput separation; suitable for aqueous-organic solvent systems.
• Cadenza HS-C18 HPLC Column World's first hydrophilic/hydrophobic hybrid ODS column for direct injection of serum (plasma) samples, excluding high molecular weight proteins while retaining small-molecule drugs; supports LC-MS compatible direct plasma analysis for TDM and mAb formulation analysis.
• Scherzo C18 Family (SS-C18, SM-C18, SW-C18) The world's first dual ion-exchange multimode ODS column family, combining reversed-phase with weak cation and weak anion exchange mechanisms on a single stationary phase for separating highly polar and ionizable compounds.
• Presto FF-C18 HPLC Column The world's only 2 μm non-porous ODS column, providing rapid mass-transfer-based separations for high-throughput analysis of biomolecules and small molecules.
• Dacapo DX-C18 HPLC Column World's first silica/polymer dual-matrix ODS column, suitable for alkali mobile phases with a pH range of 1-12 and 2.5 μm particle UHPLC compatibility.
• Nardis ND-NX HPLC Column A column compatible with normal-phase and dual ion-exchange modes, providing improved separation of ionizable highly polar substances.
• Nardis ND-RX HPLC Column A reversed-phase column with phenyl, weak anion, and weak cation groups (dual ion-exchange), providing enhanced separation compared to traditional phenyl columns.
• Nardis NF-PFP/Biphenyl HPLC Column A phenyl-based reversed-phase hybrid column incorporating both PFP (pentafluorophenyl) and Biphenyl groups, providing unique selectivity for separating isomers and structurally similar compounds via π-π and π-dipole interactions.
• Intrada Amino Acid HPLC Column World's first LC-MS dedicated non-derivatized amino acid analysis column, enabling direct LC-MS analysis of amino acids without derivatization with protein constituent amino acid measurement in 5-10 minutes and ultra-fast 1-minute analysis on 10x2 mm format; separates isomers such as Leu/Ile.
• Intrada Organic Acid HPLC Column The world's first silica-based LC-MS dedicated non-derivatized organic acid analysis column, enabling direct analysis of organic acids without ion-pair reagents or derivatization.
• Intrada SEC HPLC Column A size exclusion chromatography column compatible with volatile mobile phases, supporting both aqueous (GFC) and non-aqueous (GPC) modes for MS compatibility.
• Intrada WP-RP HPLC Column A wide-pore reversed-phase column (30 nm pore size) using 3 μm silica particles with newly developed reversed-phase ligands, suitable for biomolecules such as proteins up to several hundred thousand Daltons, enabling easier elution of hydrophobic substances.
• High-Throughput Amino Acid Composition Analysis System Co-developed analytical solution combining HiPep AHST-10/AHST-16 hydrolysis device with Imtakt Intrada Amino Acid column for non-derivatized LC-MS amino acid analysis of protein/peptide samples. Joint publication: Amino Acids, 48, 11, 2491-2499, 2016.

Quantifiable outcome

• Direct plasma injection analysis replacing conventional protein removal methods, supporting over 300 repeated injections (TOWA Pharmaceutical, Cadenza HS-C18)
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature11 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• HiPep Research Institute (HiPep Laboratories)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-developed the High-Throughput Amino Acid Composition Analysis System that pairs HiPep's AHST-10/AHST-16 high-speed hydrolysis device with Imtakt's Intrada Amino Acid column for non-derivatized LC-MS amino acid analysis. The combined system enables 3-hour hydrolysis of up to 16 protein/peptide samples simultaneously, dramatically improving operational efficiency of traditional amino acid composition analysis. Joint publications include 'High throughput sequencing of cyclic peptide immobilized on a gel-type single bead' (Amino Acids, 48, 11, 2491-2499, 2016).
• Shimadzu CorporationflagshipTechnology or IntegrationShimadzu has validated Imtakt columns on multiple LC-MS instruments (LCMS-2020, LCMS-8040, LCMS-8050) and produced joint application notes and ASMS conference posters (2014, 2015). Application notes cover high-sensitivity LC-MS/MS analysis of amino acids in foods and beverages. Shimadzu also referenced for DMPK applications using Scherzo SM-C18 multimode column.
• Agilent TechnologiescoreTechnology or IntegrationAgilent instruments (6130 single quad, 6550 Q-TOF) have been validated with Imtakt's Intrada Amino Acid column for amino acid analysis in soy sauce and metabolic disorder screening at University of Utah / ARUP Institute.
• Thermo Fisher ScientificcoreTechnology or IntegrationThermo Scientific instruments (TSQ Endura triple quad, Exactive Plus Orbitrap MS) have been validated for use with Imtakt Intrada Amino Acid column. Joint references include Kindai University (Dr. Mitamura) LC-MS/MS amino acid analysis and Nagoya University (Dr. Kuwata) Orbitrap amino acid analysis.
• University of Utah / ARUP InstituteminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerUniversity of Utah / ARUP Institute (Julie A. Ray, ARUP Institute) partnered with Imtakt to develop a proposed strategy for detection of metabolic disorders using high-resolution LC-TOF MS screening with reflex to targeted quantitation by tandem mass spectrometry using the Intrada Amino Acid column. MSACL 2017 poster referenced phenylketonuria (PKU) screening in human plasma.
• GSK (GlaxoSmithKline)minorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerGSK (UK) developed application of multi-mode ODS columns (Scherzo SM-C18) to DMPK (Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics), referenced as an Imtakt user report.
• Tokyo Customs LaboratoryminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerTokyo Customs Laboratory Report No. 60 documents amino acids analysis without derivatization by using liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (LC-QTOF-MS) with Imtakt Intrada Amino Acid column.
• U.S. FDAminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerU.S. FDA-associated publication referenced for real-time quantification of amino acids in antibody drug production media using Imtakt Intrada Amino Acid column — Biotechnology Progress, doi:10.1002/btpr.2894.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Sciex (Danaher): LC-MS/MS instrument manufacturer (now part of Danaher) that has validated Imtakt columns on its API 4000 QTRAP and other mass spec systems; comparable as an LC-MS ecosystem participant rather than direct column competitor.

Emerging players

• Bio-Rad Laboratories: Life science research and clinical diagnostics company with a chromatography consumables line (e.g., Bio-Gel, UNOsphere) that overlaps with Imtakt's Intrada SEC and biomolecule separation products, particularly for protein purification workflows.

Broad incumbents

• Merck KGaA (Sigma-Aldrich / Supelco): Supelco analytical columns portfolio under Sigma-Aldrich competes with Imtakt in pharma, environmental, and food testing; broader chemical-and-life-science conglomerate with deep procurement relationships at major US pharma accounts.
• Thermo Fisher Scientific: Global analytical instrument and consumables leader offering Hypersil GOLD, Acclaim, and BIO column families alongside its LC-MS instruments; directly competes with Imtakt while simultaneously validating Imtakt Intrada Amino Acid on its Orbitrap and TSQ systems.
• Agilent Technologies: Broad analytical instrument manufacturer offering LC, LC-MS, and a comprehensive portfolio of ZORBAX and InfinityLab HPLC columns; competes with Imtakt in pharma and food testing while validating Imtakt columns on its instruments.
• Waters Corporation: Largest dedicated LC and LC-MS instrument-and-consumables incumbent; sells ACQUITY UPLC, XBridge, and BEH column families that directly compete with Imtakt across pharma, clinical, and food applications, and bundles columns with its instrument install base.
• Shimadzu Corporation: Japanese LC/LC-MS instrument-and-consumables incumbent offering Shim-pack and other column families; competes with Imtakt in pharma and food analysis, while also co-validating Imtakt's Intrada Amino Acid on its LCMS-8050/8040/2020 systems.

Direct peers

• Tosoh Bioscience: Separation-science arm of Tosoh Corporation offering HPLC columns, SEC resins, and process chromatography media; comparable niche positioning in biomolecule and bioprocess separations, including size-exclusion and ion-exchange columns overlapping with Imtakt's Intrada line.
• YMC Co., Ltd. Japan-based HPLC and SMB column manufacturer with similar specialty reversed-phase and chiral chemistries; competes head-to-head with Imtakt in Asian pharma markets and increasingly in US biopharma accounts.
• Phenomenex (Danaher): Specialist HPLC column manufacturer acquired by Danaher; directly competes with Imtakt across reversed-phase, HILIC, ion-exchange, and size-exclusion chemistries, with a comparable specialty-column-only go-to-market model and broad pharma/biotech/food/clinical customer base.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

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 Imtakt USA