Keensight Capital, one of the leading private equity managers dedicated to pan-European Growth Buyout investments, has invested in CatSci Ltd, a Contract Research Organisation (CRO) supporting top tier global pharmaceutical companies to deliver life-changing therapeutics to patients around the world. Keensight Capital will invest alongside the founders, senior management, and employees.
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, CatSci was formed in December 2010 from a spin-out of AstraZeneca’s Catalyst Screening Facility by five founders, including current co-owners Dr. Ross Burn and Dr. Simon Tyler, now CEO and COO, respectively.
The company, which serves emerging, mid-sized, and large pharma companies, has six operational laboratories across two UK sites fitted with the latest high-end equipment. CatSci covers 13 countries and works with four of the top five global pharmaceutical companies. The company currently employs nearly 100 people, of which approximately 80% hold a PhD degree.
CatSci is committed to developing economically and environmentally sustainable drug manufacturing processes that enable its global pharmaceutical customers to create affordable small molecule therapeutics to address critical public health challenges, including antimicrobial resistance, cancer, and mental health.
Thanks to its differentiated positioning, excellent track record, and highly skilled scientific workforce, CatSci enjoys consistently outstanding market and customer feedback, which is reflected in its strong 30-40% per annum historical growth trajectory. Within just a few years, CatSci has won both locally and nationally recognised awards, with 2022 successes including the highly esteemed “Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade” and “Bionow Export of the Year Award”.
Keensight Capital are investing behind CatSci management to support continued growth of the core business via capability and site expansion, as well as the development of GMP capabilities and the expansion of its offering in oligonucleotide services. Keensight Capital will bring its expertise and successful track record of investments in the CRDMO space, with the ability to help accelerate growth through accretive M&A. This will enable CatSci to continue offering “more and better” to its customers in order to deliver best-in-class medicines for patients worldwide.
Dr. Ross Burn, CEO, and Dr. Simon Tyler, COO at CatSci, commented: “Keensight’s team has extensive experience in the CRO and Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO) space across both small and large molecules, thus, making it the ideal team to partner with to accelerate our growth. Coupled to their impressive international network and expertise in delivering operational support to fast-growing companies, the support of the Keensight team will be key for the success of our expansion strategy going forward. We are very excited about this new partnership and can’t wait to write the future chapters of our success story together.”
James Mitchell, Partner at Keensight Capital, added: “We are delighted that Ross and Simon have chosen Keensight to support CatSci in its next stage of growth. We believe that CatSci has exceptionally strong potential in a large and continuously developing market that is expected to reach c.$75bn by 2030. Their unique positioning and strong expertise in small molecule R&D, as well as their renowned high-quality scientific services and workforce, make them a critical player in the CRO ecosystem. Keensight is proud to partner with CatSci’s top class management team in their ambitions.”
About Keensight Capital
Keensight Capital, one of the leading European Growth Buyout firms, is committed to supporting entrepreneurs as they implement their growth strategies. For 20 years, Keensight Capital’s team of seasoned professionals has leveraged their knowledge of investment and growth industries to invest for the long term in profitable companies with high growth potential and revenues in the range of €10 million to €400 million. Drawing on its expertise in the Technology and Healthcare sectors, Keensight identifies the best investment opportunities in Europe and works closely with management teams to develop and achieve their strategic vision. Keensight Capital’s success has earned it a Gold Award from the Private Equity Exchange & Awards each year for the last five consecutive years, and in particular, the Best European Growth Private Equity Fund.
Find out more about Keensight Capital here.