EMSCO Scientific Enterprises, a West Philadelphia-based laboratory supplier, recently received a $2 million investment from an Enterprise Center-backed growth equity investment firm, writes Kyle Nguyen for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

In doing so, it became the first company to get funding from the Innovate Capital Growth Fund, launched to provide patient equity capital to minority- and women-owned businesses in Greater Philadelphia.

EMSCO sells laboratory and research supplies, equipment, and chemicals primarily used by pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Founded in 1980, it works with various pharmaceutical companies, universities, hospitals, and government entities across the United States.

In recent years, it has expanded its services by branching into cryopreservation and cold storage.

With its new funding, EMSCO plans to expand its cold-storage services with new walk-in refrigerator and freezer units at its warehouse in the West Parkside Industrial Center.

The funds will also go toward further enhancing its on-site cryopreservation facility, which opened last year as the city’s first African American-owned.

“We’re proud that they felt our company was capable of receiving the investment and most importantly, repaying it,” EMSCO Scientific’s CEO Lin Thomas said. “It’s an investment, it’s not a grant, and it means we have a responsibility to pay it back with a return.”

Read more about EMSCO Scientific Enterprises and its new $2 million funding in the Philadelphia Business Journal.

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