Cytek Biosciences (NASDAQ:CTKB) outlined its recent product launches, geographic diversification, and expectations for 2026 during a presentation and fireside chat at TD Cowen’s 42nd annual healthcare conference. CEO and Chairman Wenbin Jiang and CFO William McCombe discussed the company’s installed base growth, the increasing contribution of recurring revenue streams, and how management is thinking about market conditions across academic and pharmaceutical customers.
Business scale and recent performance
Jiang described Cytek as a cell analysis company focused on flow cytometers, noting that the company has placed 3,664 instruments since its first unit was deployed in 2017. He said more than 3,500 peer-reviewed publications have cited Cytek instruments and that the company has nearly 3,000 unique customer institutions. Cytek Cloud has more than 24,000 users, which he said represents 50% growth versus the prior year.
Global footprint and regional mix
Management emphasized Cytek’s global operations, describing headquarters, R&D, and manufacturing in San Diego, an R&D center in Seattle, and an East Coast training center in Bethesda. The company’s European headquarters is in Amsterdam, with support functions including service and logistics. In China, Cytek operates facilities in Shanghai (R&D) and Wuxi (manufacturing). Jiang also highlighted a manufacturing facility in Singapore that began operating in less than 100 days after starting development, which he said helped the company navigate “complicated tariff situations” and supported revenue growth in 2025. Cytek also maintains a regional sales office in Tokyo.
By geography, Jiang said revenue was 47% in the U.S., 28% in APAC, and 25% in the rest of the world. He compared that with his view of the broader flow cytometry market, describing the U.S. as roughly 40% of global demand, EMEA 30%, and APAC 30%, and said Cytek wants Europe and APAC to grow faster than the U.S. over time.
Product portfolio and the Aurora Evo launch
Jiang said the company launched two products in 2025: Aurora Evo and Muse Micro. He called Aurora Evo one of the fastest-growing products for the company and said it contributed to revenue growth in the fourth quarter. Muse Micro, he added, was named a BioTech Breakthrough Award winner for 2025.
In the fireside chat, Jiang said Aurora Evo has been “very well received” since its launch at CYTO last year and that by Q4 it represented the dominant share of Cytek’s overall Aurora Analyzer sales. While he said Evo was initially designed for pharma needs—such as faster speed and automation features—he added that it has also drawn strong interest from academic users. Jiang also pointed to replacement demand, saying early Aurora customers (with systems now eight to nine years old) are returning to replace older instruments.
Recurring revenue, Cytek Cloud, and clinical efforts
Jiang described Cytek’s business as supported by four pillars: instruments, applications (including reagents), bioinformatics (Cytek Cloud), and clinical. He said instruments accounted for 66% of revenue, while service and reagents together represent recurring revenue that has risen to 34% from 29% a year ago. Management said both service and reagents grew more than 20% year over year in 2025, and Jiang said the company expects recurring revenue to trend toward 40% over the next couple of years.
Jiang also positioned Cytek Cloud as a key workflow tool, particularly for pharmaceutical customers, noting that many have built it into standard processes. On clinical, he said the company has instruments cleared in China and under Europe’s IVDR framework, and that Cytek has formed a partnership with a clinical company in Europe to drive adoption.
2026 outlook: conservative instrument assumptions amid improving sentiment
Discussing how management approached guidance assumptions for 2026, McCombe said Cytek expects service and reagent growth rates that are “fairly consistent” with 2025, driven by the installed base (service) and market-share opportunity (reagents). For instruments, he said the company assumed “fairly flat to modest growth,” and that the company also included a contingency to account for uncertainties that are difficult to predict.
McCombe also addressed U.S. academic and government sentiment, saying it is “much better” than a year ago, when there were discussions of potential NIH funding cuts of up to 40%. He said the current outlook is not for significant growth in NIH funding, but also not for the “draconian cuts” previously discussed, contributing to improved university sentiment and a “big catch-up” in Q4.
On the pharma side, McCombe said spending tends to follow a “fairly consistent secular growth trend,” while also being lumpy quarter to quarter. He said Cytek’s total pharma revenues were down slightly in 2025 versus 2024 but grew at a roughly 3% CAGR over a two-year period.
In closing, McCombe argued that one of the biggest disconnects for investors is the assumption that “all tools are discretionary,” emphasizing flow cytometry’s role in basic cellular and immune-response analysis. He also noted that only about 5% of Cytek’s business is directly NIH-funded and said the company’s growing installed base creates a flywheel for more consistent revenue growth over time.
About Cytek Biosciences (NASDAQ:CTKB)
Cytek Biosciences is a biotechnology company specializing in innovative cell analysis solutions. The firm develops and commercializes advanced spectral flow cytometry instruments and associated reagents designed to enable high-parameter single-cell analysis. Its technology platform offers researchers and clinicians enhanced sensitivity, resolution and flexibility compared to traditional flow cytometry methods.
The company’s core product portfolio includes the Aurora and Northern Lights spectral cytometry systems, which support simultaneous detection of up to 64 fluorescence parameters.
