ioLight is the only pocket microscope with good enough resolution for scientists to see individual cells. It has been used in The Amazon Rainforest, Kazakhstan, Antarctica and at 5,000m on Mount Everest. The founders have sold nearly 300 units globally and are ready to grow the team and scale to volume.
Scientists globally are monitoring climate change. They go to the most remote, fragile ecosystems and watch the smallest, most vulnerable plants and animals. They need a portable microscope. ioLight has patented a pocket digital microscope that records 1-micron (1/1000 mm) resolution images on a standard mobile phone. That's powerful enough to display single cells. ioLight images can be shared instantly from the phone to collaborators anywhere in the world.
ioLight is disrupting the $8BN microscope market. We believe that at least £50M of this is available to portable products and there is little competition in this sector. As well as climate change, this sector includes remote diagnostics of animals, fish, humans and plants and also lab applications where space is limited.
Andrew Monk and Richard Williams founded ioLight and patented the microscope in 2014. We funded on Crowdcube in 2015, commencing product sales in 2016. Our second Crowdcube round in 2017 recruited global sales channels and a PR team driving sales to almost 300 units. In 2019 National Geographic filmed the ioLight microscope monitoring the impact of Climate Change at 5000m meters on Mount Everest - one of the first times scientific measurements have been made at this altitude. We filed a second patent application for a portable XY stage in 2020 which would give our customers lab precision anywhere in the world.