Rapid Micro Biosystems makes and sells the Growth Direct, an automated platform that replaces manual microbial quality control (MQC) testing in pharmaceutical manufacturing. MQC is a regulatory requirement for all drug manufacturers — it verifies that facilities, equipment, water, raw materials, and finished products are free of microbial contamination. The traditional process is entirely manual, slow, and error-prone, taking 5–14 days and requiring centralized lab transport. Growth Direct automates the entire workflow — sample handling, incubation, imaging, and data recording — cutting time-to-result by more than half and eliminating up to 85% of manual steps, using microbial autofluorescence and a proprietary vision algorithm to detect colonies earlier than the human eye can. The system handles up to 700 samples and can sit directly on the manufacturing floor. Growth Direct addresses four MQC applications: environmental monitoring, water testing, in-process bioburden, and sterility release. Rapid Micro's customers are primarily large biopharma companies, CDMOs, and CMOs, reached through a direct salesforce and a global distribution partnership with MilliporeSigma. As of year-end 2025, Rapid Micro had placed 190 systems across roughly 107 customer sites in 18 countries. The business model follows a razor-and-blade structure: systems generate upfront revenue, then proprietary consumables and annual service contracts generate recurring revenue for the life of the system. Recurring revenue — consumables plus service contracts — accounted for 53% of FY25 revenue. Rapid Micro pursues a land-and-expand strategy, placing initial systems at a site and then expanding to additional production suites and global facilities as Growth Direct becomes embedded in a customer's standard operating procedures.