Well, good morning, everyone. Thanks for starting off day two here of the UBS conference. We're starting off this morning with an emerging life science technologies panel, focusing across genomics and proteomics. Joining in on stage, we have two CEOs from emerging companies. We have Wenbin Jiang, who's CEO of Cytek Biosciences, and then Michael Egholm, who is President and CEO of Standard BioTools. Welcome, gentlemen, thank you for joining this morning. You know, maybe to start it off, you know, could each of you give us just a brief overview of your companies, you know, what kind of instruments you have, and how you're positioned in the market?
You wanna go first?
Sure. Cytek Biosciences is currently providing cell analysis solution. The products we have, we actually provide a broad portfolio of flow cytometers, including our full spectral flow cytometer with two platforms, Cytek NL-CLC, actually, I'm sorry, no, Aurora, IOO, Northern Light CLC, Northern Light IOO, as well as the Aurora CS as a cell sorter. In the meantime, we also provide imaging flow cytometry, including our Amnis, also the low end of the Guava product line, based on certain manual truck- driven tools out there to support proteomics applications, as well as general lab tools in the life sciences space.
Yep. Now, hey, good morning, and thanks for, thanks for having us here. I will actually give you give you two answers, so just I would be remiss if I didn't just give you pits on the Standard BioTools story, which is that we believe there's a there's a gap in our field. There are many great technologies, few of them turn into companies that manage to scale. So together with Viking and Casdin Capital, we put together a management team that's gonna go and execute all seasoned operators, all deep believers in Lean, and with, with access to capital. We completed a PIPE into Fluidigm, April 4th, last year, so a little more than five quarters in. With Fluidigm, we inherited three great platforms. We have a genomics workstations called the Biomark X9.
For a little more than $100,000, you can get a complete genomics workflow with a technician and a pipette. We're not gonna talk about that today, but I would be remiss, again, not talking about that. We have another fundamental technology, mass cytometry, which we'll, we'll dive into a little bit more later, but we have two manifestation of that. We do 50-color flow cytometry, which sounds pretty amazing, it is, and probably most of the focus will be on that here today. Then we have an imaging version of that, where we just launched a new product, which we believe has the highest quality and the highest throughput of any spatial platform in the industry.
Great.
Great. All right, well, maybe to start it off, let's talk about the flow cytometry market. You know, obviously, a pretty well-established market. There are some entrenched players. You know, we have BD, we have Agilent, we have Danaher's operating company. I guess, why don't you kind of help us understand how you're innovating in this market and differentiating for maybe some of the legacy technologies? We'll maybe start with you, and then we'll start closest to me and then kind of move forward.
Sure, great. Indeed, the flow cytometry is a market, right? Almost every life science tool labs require at least a few of tools to support their daily needs. Now, as the technology proceeds and lots of new demands coming, they moved from a few parameters to 30, 40, and then the industry realized the typical conventional flow cytometry has hit a barrier, won't go beyond 30 for those fluorescence-based technology. What we have realized is the reason for being so is because the conventional technology and throw away information.
When they capture, detect, the fluorescence, the the light information from the fluorescence dyes, they throw away lots of sideband and capture only the center wavelength, the intensity of the central wavelength. We feel and in order really to move the information go way beyond the 30, 40 parameters, we need to capture the complete information. That's where we come from, is we come up with a technology that captures the entire fluorescence spectrums with every details. Not only so, we realize when you use a laser to excite the fluorescence dyes, you have one particular spectrum. However, sorry. Yeah. However, if you use a different laser to excite the same dye, the spectrum come out from the fluorescence dye actually slightly different.
If you use, let's say, five lasers, you have five spectrums from the same dyes, which are all somewhat different in those fine features. If you seen them all together, you have a full, complete informations. Okay, we capture all of those informations. Because of this, that allow us to utilize all of the fluorescence dyes available, That's how we can go way beyond 30 or even 40 parameters, put all of them into the same sample tubes. That's the kind of breakthrough we have made, so it, that's how differentiate Cytek technology from many of the other companies' flow cytometers. In addition, we realized, conventional flow cytometer had been relying upon those vacuum tube-based PMT.
As you know, in the early days, a whole computer workstation occupied the whole room, right? That was pretty much due to the vacuum tube transistor being utilized. That was pretty much the situation of the conventional flow cytometers. We got rid of those things and replaced those vacuum tube with semiconductor technology. Through that, we reduced the whole overall volume, size of the flow cytometer, making it also more compact. The replacement of vacuum tube also enable us to generate, create a tool which can be standardized. As you know, today, if you do a clinical trial, you would like to make sure this same clinical trial can be conducted across many different labs in different country, but you want the data to be consistent. That's about standardization.
Vacuum tube won't allow you to do this, our semiconductor technology, as you know, it's wafer-level manufacturing process, all the same, and given tools. That's how we differentiate Cytek from many of other companies.
Great, okay. A more comprehensive, more compact machine with the ability to standardize kind of data easily. Great. Michael, I guess.
Yeah,
turning to you on the flow cytometer.
Yeah, no, I'll add, piggyback on what Wenbin just said here. Just note that flow cytometry really not considered proteomics until recently. In fact, fairly unsexy, but with the ability to do many parameters at the same time, we, we can now justifiably call it proteomics. Our technology solves the fundamental problem of fluorescence. As Wenbin just explained, fluorescence is really complicated, you have to do a lot of gymnastics to extract information from each dye and relate it back. We do it a fundamentally different way. We use pure isotopes and use a mass spec, what you essentially end up with is 50 digital colors. There's no, there's no deconvolution, there's no need for running a bunch of standards. You get data you can interpret without any manipulation, therefore, you get these ultra-clean data.
There's another advantage is that we can see any combination of markers inside and outside the cells, which is really, really important to get biology. We're not competing with anyone. We sit at the, the very, very high end. Traditionally, we've been limited because it's mass spec, people are scared of it. It's not scary. It's actually simpler to use, but it's nonetheless scary. We used to be more expensive, and workflows didn't use to be very easy, so we cracked all those nuts. Same price range, actually a simpler workflow. Where we are really focused now is making immune profiling routine as part of a clinical trial. That's really our laser focus.
I believe that pharma companies really should do a immune profile before, during, and after administration of, of any drug, but certainly classes of drugs that interact with the immune system, but virtually any drug does, so there's the huge opportunity here.
All right. Well, one more from me, just since we're talking about it. We'll start with you, Michael, and then move to the left a bit. Where do you see, I guess, from your perspective, kind of flow that market growth? Obviously, both of you guys are outgrowing the market, and how you see kind of your end market growth, and kind of the TAM and kind of how you would kind of size the opportunity set with your devices. Let's start with you, Michael, and-
Yeah, so we, there's a couple of billion-dollar-plus research market for flow cytometries where, where we play, obviously, longer term because of the inherent quality of the data. Clinical is, is not out of the question, but it's a long way away. One, one really important thing I just forgot to mention before, it's true, we can do 50 color. We actually do five colors better also for all the same reasons, but there are now the payoff for the complexity of going to mass spec is not yet considered. Inherently, our data is so clean, you can do it from site to site, you can ship samples, you don't have to run it all at the same time, a bunch of advances in, in the clinical market, so eventually we'll go there.
We estimate that about 20% of flow cytometry is high parameter, and it grows at a similar rate to the rest of proteomics, 15%-25%. Healthy, healthy growth in that market and certainly, what we are seeing in our business. Fundamentally, we believe, and I'm sure Wenbin will agree with me, that more and more will move to high parameter. We didn't do high parameter before because we couldn't, and there's so much biology buried there. Once you begin to inventory the basic immune cells, you need 20-25 markers and then maybe 10 functional markers. Before you really get in the game of seeing biology, you see 30-35 markets easily. There's I think market is gonna keep growing and become a bigger part.
Great. Love to get your perspective as well.
Yeah, as what Michael has indicated, it's a few billion dollar market, and also it's a growing market, okay? Even so, what we have been doing here, with our technology, not only we, focus on, continue to, going up on the parameter, which we have done very well on that end, because our technology is a conventional flow, flow record-based technology people are familiar with. In addition, our technology also apply to the entry to the mid-level, so across the complete pictures and the spectrum. That's what we have been, focusing on, and on the top end, we continue to push the boundary, going beyond what conventional flow cytometry can do for high-parameter, cell analysis.
As Michael said, that part of the market continue to grow, and more and more, users are going to the high-dimensional, cell analysis, and which, we, can support very well. In the meantime, we also realize, and even for the entry and the mid-level, we provide a little value and consistency, standardization, and, cost, all of those kind of advantages to those type of, users as well. That's where we see the opportunity for Cytek to continue to expand, to grow.
Great. One more before I hand it over to John. Kind of that 15%-25% that Michael indicated, does that feel. How does that feel to you, that market growth?
No, I think that market definitely, and continue to, firstly, the overall market continue to expand, right? Even if we stay with 20-25%, and that market is going to grow with the overall general market growth. Of course, as I agree with Michael, the high dimensional cell analysis is actually continue to expand way beyond what the overall flow cytometry growth shows up.
Great.
Great. you know, when you look at expanding that market, just I can start with Michael here, you know, what, what % of your sales today are into biotech or biopharma? Just given the current environment, you've seen some pressures there across broader life sciences, just any update on kind of what macro trends are looking like from your perspective in that market today, too?
Yeah. We have... Unfortunately, it's a very small part of our revenue that's into biotech, pharma, CRO, about 20%. I, I certainly intend to expand that ratio significantly. All technologies have to go through this cycle of getting validated in academia. We're now just sort of coming out of our infancy, where the technology is fully validated. Like, 19 out of 20 papers with more than 20 protein markers of the stuff we published in peer-reviewed papers are done with mass cytometry, we really feel well on how we are positioned. There's a lot we have to do. Macro environment, when you're a micro company, you shouldn't really care about it.
At a $100 million-ish run rate company, I don't permit my guys to think that way, but clearly, we are seeing headwinds in the business. Many, many big companies are cutting their CapEx, and it is headwind. We use that opportunity to build funnel while that's going on.
Great.
Yeah, a few years ago, when we first started to move into this space, flow cytometry, with our full spectral technology, at that time, of course, 100% of our business was in academia. Due to our success and in that space, in fact, the CRO pharmaceuticals see the benefits, advantages, and we quickly grow into that market. Looking at today, almost close to 50% of our business is in pharma, biotech, CRO, that arena. Of course, on the last few quarters, we do see some challenges. Initially started with biotech and gradually got into the pharma space. That's what we have seen here. Nevertheless, the business continues. It's not really what we notice, it just takes a longer time-
Great.
Instead of, the business getting lost.
You know, academic is still a large portion then, you know, 50%-80% of revenues across your two platforms there. You know, when you look at the NIH budgets, you're seeing some slowing in year-over-year there, you know, some of these new platforms, high-end instrumentation, there still seems to be some demand from there. I guess, any color just on what your view is on the academic demand environment now, you know, near term or, or long term?
Yeah. It, would be great if the NIH increased their budget more. W hat I can talk to, though, is this plethora of new high-plex platforms also in spatial biology, where we also compete, and there are many new exciting technologies, and other companies are very aggressively targeting new PIs. Even though we don't compete with them remotely, it's still tying up dollars and oxygen. That 's really the competition we have. We have such a compelling value prop once you get in and discuss the virtues of either our flow cytometry imaging solution, that there's really no competition. You've gotta break through that excitement of, what is it? NanoString, Vizgen, 10x, Parse Biosciences, and all those guys-
Mm-hmm.
With new high-plex platforms. It all plays sort of in the same area. I still believe that there are very, very defined, needs in, in flow cytometry. You can make it through routine, fast clinical use. Spatial biology as well, discovery, translational research. We said in, translational research, again, it's we are so small and so under-penetrated, it should really not, affect us too much. Again, I don't allow my sales team to think that way, huh.
Yeah, in the academic space, we actually look at the numbers, the data during the last few quarters. We actually, we find our growth continues. We haven't really seen obvious slowdown in that space. Looks like partly we feel contribute to the flow cytometry itself being a mature technology being utilized in many high end of the research space, and also due to our advanced technology. When they do need to add new tools, pretty much it's easier for them to get into a new technology instead of just replace their existing one. That's probably part of the reason why, and, we continue to grow and, in the academic space.
Great. I'll ask one more industry-level question, then we can start digging into some more detail on some of the companies. Just can you remind us what % of your revenues are in China? Then, what's your outlook for the market there?
Yeah. We haven't disclosed that, but we have a healthy share is from China. We have a very strong team in China that continue to execute well. We, we are hearing concerns about where the future funding is coming from, but haven't seen it yet. Because the sales cycles and process is very long in China, we have sort of fairly good view on what's happening the next three, four months. Beyond that, then there may be some uncertainty. As I said, I'm, I'm, I'm so pleased with the team I have in China and the way they keep executing. Again, we're so under-penetrated, and we can really, really help accelerate breakthroughs in human health. There's, there's no excuses for not going out and selling our platform.
Yeah, overall, our APAC business is about 15%. Of course, China dominates, more than 15%, followed by Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. In during the last 2 quarters, China actually did very well. As Michael indicated, the process in China normally is longer than typically you will see in Europe or US, definitely. What we did the last two few quarters probably is due to the engagement we had to previously. The current macro economy may have impact, but it's not showing up yet. We all know in China, government policy definitely plays a role with regarding to how eventually you are going to perform over there.
On the other hand, there's a whole movement in China, in the flow cytometry space to going toward a full spectral technology. They all realize flow cytometry eventually will go to spectral, and we absolutely have benefited from this kind of understanding. If they do decide to purchase, that, we feel we are going to benefit.
Great. Now, Liza, do you wanna start off with the?
Sure. Let's start off. Well, let's try taking the hot seat first. Since we're talking about China, can you talk a little bit, you both mentioned the sales cycle being a bit longer there? If you could just kind of elaborate on kind of, you know, sales trends there and, and how you think about that market, since it seems like it's a little bit different to kind of execute on the sale.
Yeah, normally, in China, if from the sales perspective, we have our direct sales force. We have a very extensive sales force in China, working with customers, develop opportunities, helping customers to design technology, right? Those type of process typically takes quite a while. With regarding to flow cytometry overall, people there are not as sophisticated as the U.S. They understand this very well, taken already, because of them years of experiences, right, in the U.S. and Europe. China, normally in the end, require extensive support from Cytek engineer scientists to work with customers to develop opportunities, develop applications.
Through that end, and the reason why it takes a while, then you start to work with them to work on the budget, work on the funding opportunities. Eventually afterwards, and from that part end, they come to a final tender process, and finally.
Take it-
You win or you lose.
Okay, that's helpful. Would you say that it's like two times longer or maybe a month, or like kind of typical sales versus kind of a sale in China?
Yeah, can be two times or sometimes even longer.
Okay, great. Well, let's talk a little bit about the company. So the AML panel, can you talk a little bit about kind of that panel in oncology and, you know, thinking more about kind of the oncology and MRD markets and how you're thinking about your positioning there? Let's start there and kind of, you know.
Mm.
You're thinking about panel creation and kind of that aspect.
Yeah, sure. We generated this AML panel pretty much focused on the MRD leukemia, right, from MRD applications. Flow cytometry has conventionally been utilized actually for that type of application. Not sensitive enough. Even people going to alternative PCR or genomics because sensitivity is far better. The problem with PCR or genomics, that takes a longer time, days, to get the result. Flow cytometry is fast, normally a few hours. The problem with conventional approach is due to the number of parameters being limited with what people have been doing before you, they have to split the sample into multiple tubes, typically four to 11 tubes, depending on which lab you go to.
But since we are talking about a minimal residual disease, not that many cells, and they-- and, if you split, then you lose information, lose samples, right, lose cells. With Cytek, now we can combine all of those parameters into a single tube. By doing so, not only, you save the time since it's from a single tube, and you save costs, since you don't need to split into multiple tubes, and lots of reagents that was- have been utilized, have been used. Now, every a ll the cells are in one tube, that it means you are not going to lose any data. All the cells are over there.
That's how we come up with, we have been working with many labs to develop what we have come up with. So far, we've noticed as with what we have provided, the sensitivity has improved tremendously from the typical 10 to the minus three, 10 to the minus four, to beyond 10 to the minus five. That actually has really got lots of interest.
Great. How do you-
Michael, before joining Standard BioTools, you'd been at Danaher in a previous role, and once you joined the firm there, you implemented the SBS system. Can you just talk a little bit about how that's transforming Standard BioTools and improving your, your funnel and sales?
Yeah. A little bit of a backstory. I spent a number of years developing technologies, ended up working at Danaher through an acquisition, and I was what the inside the Lean speak call a knucklehead. Anyway, through Kaizen, I actually saw the virtue of all the processes. I didn't think I needed it, but I actually saw firsthand when I ran the biopharm business there, saw firsthand how powerful a tool Lean conversion was, not just in the factories, but that was my first aha moment. Then I saw, like, doing Standard Work, following those processes in everything we did, just dramatically enabled higher performance. That was, in fact, that observation was the genesis of what became Standard BioTools, that God, there's this amazing system out there called Lean or Toyota Production System.
Danaher fraction are the best practitioners of it, one of the best-run companies in the industry, I would argue. Really believe that that kind of mindset, not necessarily the way Danaher does it, but that mindset works really well here, even on small companies, and that's what we've done here the last year with transforming the company. We just posted our quarterly results, very healthy growth in our business that we're turning around, but also dramatic reduction of OpEx and 1,000 basis points expansion of gross margins. We actually have a business now. We didn't a year ago, now we have a business. The way you would see it, it's not quite a religious cult, but everybody inside the company lives and breathes SBS.
I was fortunate enough that when I came in, I brought over a handful of people, all with prior experience at Danaher, way outside my unsolicited and all that good stuff, just for clarity. But no, on a serious note, Danaher is not the only place you can go learn this, but I know if you survive three to four years there, you're a really good operator, and you're not gonna get your ego in the way. Really use that as a.. It's a cheat when you are hiring, basically. It, but also it turned out we all spoke the same language, so we hit it really hard, and then we used them and Baker's Lean focus initially to just come in and have all the resources.
Now we have our own trainers, we're training our own trainers, et cetera, and so it lives. If you walk into one of our factories, you would say that they have been operating lean for years. I'm really, really pleased on how it's transformed every single aspect of how we operate.
Great. I think we're now at triple-digit placements for the Aurora. It would be great to kind of, this all sort of, talk about your outlook, maybe more specifically back half of this year into 2024, and also talk about kind of the sales funnel and demand building, and kind of how you're seeing kind of placements, and is it, you know, how, how, you know, increment- Is incremental placements just gaining more traction, or how you're thinking about kind of placements, traction, and, and that part of the market?
Yeah, as you can see, in a very short period of time, we have grown our install base to more than 1,800 with our full spectral technology. That just shows kind of momentum. In the flow cytometry space, everybody has realized full spectral is the way to go, is the future of the flow cytometry. Right. But on the other hand, if you take a closer look at the annual revenue, the whole market Michael just mentioned, a few billion dollars, which I agree, and we are still a small fraction of the total, right? That just shows the opportunities continue, a long way to go for us to become a true dominant players in the whole flow cytometry space.
We see great opportunities, even looking at our funnel over the next few quarters, we do see that. Clearly, total opportunities definitely continue to grow for Cytek. We've basically focused on and continue to turn those opportunity into real POs. We feel, of course, in this current macroeconomy, that may take more effort, more time.
Mm-hmm.
We... the opportunity is there, definitely, and the people continue to buy, and we just want to make sure, and when they do make a decision, they come to Cytek.
Just to clarify, did you guys have kind of a KOL-like approach when you thought about the initial placements, or has it just been that demand has really been there, and so for you guys, it's just word of mouth is kind of really driving incremental demand?
It's not just word of mouth, right? We utilize all kinds of marketing opportunities. Of course, involving and not only like, we work with the existing customers, existing users, we also work through various channels, we develop new opportunities, we work closely with those key opinion leaders, and we also work very closely with those we have already penetrated into to expand beyond where they are today. Definitely, if you look at the usage in many of the organizations, normally, they don't just buy 1, right? The first one is give you an opportunity. Question is how you turn one into 10, and from 10 into multiple 10, right? That's what we have been focusing on.
Good strategy. John?
Michael, you know, this has been an instrument-heavy year with the multiple product launches. Any color just on reagents and consumables, have you provided any, you know, near-term or long-term targets and how you see that business, part of the business growing?
Yeah, we did provide guidance in our Q1. We haven't changed that. There's a lot of things going on underneath our business. As you could see in our last quarterly results, we have very healthy rate and pull-through, both on the genomics platform and on the proteomics platform. We are really focused on placing new units to support an upgrade cycle and then getting new customers on board. Then we're driving usage by launching more panels. We increased the rate with which we launch new panels by 5x. Again, by the use of SBS, it applies to every aspect of what we do, including in product development. When we came in a little more than a year ago, we were in transitioning.
We were building a new instrument, which we, again, with SBS, got out a lot sooner and a lot higher performance and quality. We're now selling that. Then we had to fix our CyTOF XT to use a fantastic platform. There were things that needed to be done before we could go full out. Now that's what, what, what you're seeing here, and I'll, I'll, I'll take it. What we are pointing investors to is: Don't judge me on any one quarter. Just look at instruments, reagents, services, gross margin, OpEx. It's a very simple equation. Selling a couple more instrument in one quarter, I look like a genius, and whatever the opposite of genius is, if I sell a couple less. Just look at the underlying. There's a really, really healthy...
We are bringing on new customers that are new to CyTOF. Maybe just piggyback on what Minmin said on. I agree that high parameter flow definitely is, that's where everything is moving. You see all the big old players are coming this way. We love it because our technology is so much better on the high end, so there's some education here. I think they complement each other, but love the education and the free marketing here.
Mm-hmm.
We again, when we came in 1.5 years ago, it's not a, it's not a comment on anyone on the old team. I think many of the companies out here are not very targeted in the marketing approach. We sold innovation. That's what our statement our website said for our website, and I don't know anybody buying innovation, you buy solutions. So we're really focusing in on what it is we can do with the, and the messaging, and hopefully you see it getting sharper. It's still not where I want it, but it's a lot sharper than it was a year ago, and next year it will be even sharper.
Great. I believe there was an acquisition announced earlier in the year. It would be great to get an update kind of on acquisition, integration, and then just kind of how you're thinking about capital deployment in this market, just given, you know, valuations are probably from some of the unprofitable life science tools, companies might be, increasingly attractive and kind of how you're thinking about capital deployment.
Yeah, I think firstly, is early this year, we acquired the assets from Luminex for the conventional their imaging flow cytometry, as well as the microcapillary-based product lines. Those are actually two very distinct product lines. Within the mix, they were from different divisions, managed differently. I think the imaging product lines is the integration is pretty much complete and because it has always been a standalone managed business operations, and so integration kind of straightforward. We have now taking over the complete management as well as operation, and all of those things are all done basically on the Amnis imaging side. This business has been based in Seattle and continues to be that way.
The second part is the microcapillary-based Guava product line. That one was actually embedded, embedded in the Luminex operation, and require us to carve that out and transfer into Cytek's facility. That part is almost done right now, and I think we are getting to the finish line. That's a good sign, and so far have been doing well. Our focus, of course, going forward, is really to cost down that product line. Unlike Amnis, which enjoys a similar profitable profitability profile like Cytek's products, Guava definitely is challenged from that perspective. With this product being transferred into Cytek facility, we do see an opportunity going forward. We'll continue to assess and to work on that subject.
That also give us an opportunity to integrate that technology into Cytek's technology, merge together and for the future generation of entry-level product, just like Guava, to serve for that part of the customer base. Now, from overall capital perspective and the market perspective, we know most of the life science tool companies are not profitable. They burn lots of cash. Actually, in today's environment, definitely is very difficult for many of them. Cytek is very different, and we always pay attention to profitable growth is always our focus, right? We are not trying to grow at any cost.
Mm-hmm.
But still we not only we maintain a high top-line growth, we make sure Cytek will continue to be profitable. But that gives us an opportunity to assess all of those other companies available out there, an opportunity for us to expand from where we are today. But we scrutinize very carefully with regarding to what to pick up. We want to make sure whatever the technology, not only is has a synergy with what we are doing and in the same cell analysis space, add value. We also want to make sure any technology product has an opportunity to turn into a profitable business. So that's what we have been focusing on so far.
Great. It sounds like, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, so please correct me, but, obviously, you're, you're, you're continuing to scrutinize kind of capital deployment opportunities. I would... It seems like the pipeline continues to, to be full, and there's a series of opportunities for you guys to continue to, to look at, at in this market, you would say?
Absolutely. We have $300 million cash, right? How to deploy the capital and effectively and earn. That's an area of focus for us.
Okay.
Michael, similar question, just with, you know, the PIPE and then the formation of Standard BioTools. You look at your portfolio of both the proteomic side and then the genomic side and the spatial. You know, I guess, is this the right portfolio of assets? You know, have you given any targets on where you would be deploying capital? What could make sense from, you know, inorganic opportunities?
Yeah. No, thanks for that question. We were built as a for-purpose M&A acquisition vehicle. We used what was Fluidigm as a chassis. Just, again, piggybacking on Ben, Ben here again, amen to profitable growth. We had $143 million in cash, short-term equivalents at the end of Q2. Our operating cash burn is now down into the single digits, which is a milestone in itself. Certainly not the goal, but we're in a slight pad here over the next several quarters to get it down to nothing and eventually start crank out of business. That OpEx spend, though, is net of investments in a management team. I've top-graded the entire layer and also deeper into the organization here. All this spend is net of that.
In fact, I would say I've over-invested in management. We didn't all set out to be a $100 million company. We have our eyes built on, on, on bigger things. Now that we have what, what was Fluidigm on a really good trajectory, we are sort of stomping at the bit to go, go for the next thing. What are we looking for? We are looking for highly differentiated assets. And all three technologies, my genomics platform, flow, imaging, highly differentiated. Nobody can do what we can do. It doesn't mean it's a business, that's the distinction, but, but being highly differentiated is a really good start and not being a commodity business. We're not looking to do science experiments, so we're not gonna take technology risk, but we'll take, take market risks.
Any asset we look at, gotta have, the right gross margin profile, or at least they may not have it today, but we've got to be able to see it. You cannot slug around selling. Like, even if you send tens of millions of dollars of instruments, if your gross margin is 40%, there's no business there, certainly not in, in, in life sciences. Gotta have the right gross margin profile. Then finally, but maybe most importantly, gotta be pointed at the translational research space that into pharma, so we can piggyback on all the other technologies we have.
Great. Well, you know, with that, we're basically right up here at time. Wenbin and Michael, thank you very much both for joining us today, and thank you for listening in the audience.
Thank you.
Thank you for having us.