LuminUltra's Second Act: After the Pandemic Sprint, Back to Water

For most of its two-decade history, LuminUltra was the kind of company only its customers thought about: a Fredericton firm selling tests that measure microbes in water systems — utilities, industrial plants, wastewater operators.

Then came 2020, and LuminUltra became briefly, intensely famous.

The pandemic sprint

When COVID-19 testing supply chains seized up, the company stepped into the national breach, committing to supply the federal government with 500,000 COVID-19 tests per week. It filed a patent for what it described as the world's first rapid, on-site COVID-19 wastewater testing solution — built on a research collaboration with Dalhousie University and Halifax Water — and partnered with the U.S. CDC on the National Wastewater Surveillance System, monitoring hundreds of sites across the United States. Along the way it acquired Florida-based Source Molecular to expand its testing capacity, and CEO Pat Whalen was named Water's Next Business Leader of the Year for the run.

It was a remarkable stretch for a company from a city better known for cybersecurity: proof that NB firms can operate at national-infrastructure scale when the moment demands it.

The second act

The strategic question since has been what to keep. Wastewater surveillance went from obscurity to public-health standard practice during the pandemic, and LuminUltra's decades of microbial know-how position it for that market permanently — not just for one pathogen.

The quiet version of this company was always a good business. The interesting bet is that the loud version taught it how to be a bigger one.

Sources

• LuminUltra Will Supply 500,000 COVID-19 Tests per Week to Canadian Government — April 2020 company release
• LuminUltra Files Patent for the World's First Rapid, On-site COVID-19 Wastewater Testing Solution — October 2020 patent announcement (company's "world's first" framing)
• LuminUltra Expands Testing Capacity with Acquisition of Source Molecular Corporation — November 2020 acquisition announcement
• Fredericton company gets federal contract to supply COVID-19 test chemicals — CBC coverage of the federal contract