Horsham, Pa.; Aug. 4, 2020 – Clinical ink, a global clinical trial technology company, today announced its acquisition by GI Partners, a leading private equity investment firm. Existing investor NovaQuest will continue as a minority investor in the company and Clinical ink’s management team also invested significantly in the transaction.
“GI Partners’ acquisition is a powerful validation of our eSource vision for clinical trials and will add to our growing momentum in the marketplace,” said Clinical ink CEO, Ed Seguine. “We are the undeniable leader in delivering eSource solutions across all phases and therapeutic areas. This transaction will help accelerate the adoption of our business model at a time when the weaknesses and frailties of the current clinical technology landscape are so starkly apparent. I’m excited to work with GI Partners as we launch our latest innovations later this year and expand into Asia-Pacific and Europe to support our customers’ global operations.”
Clinical ink’s service-first methodology and dedication to supporting a wide range of deployment options enable confident decisions, faster, and have driven meaningful industry adoption. Over the past three years, the company has tripled its bookings, quadrupled its revenues, and backlog has grown by 500% as the company’s technology has been deployed across:
- 300 studies, in all Phases (I–IV)
- 60 countries in 70 languages
- 50+ BYOD studies – decisively more than anyone else in the market
“We are proud to partner with a company as dynamic and transformational as Clinical ink,” said Dave Kreter, managing director at GI Partners. “The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the industry’s timeline to put hybrid and decentralized trial technology into place. Clinical ink has long been an eSource pioneer and we believe they are ideally positioned to lead this comprehensive improvement in the way clinical trials are conducted. The continued involvement of NovaQuest is a tremendous vote of confidence in the business and we look forward to building on their early successes.”
“The fact that this deal was completed at a time of unprecedented uncertainty in the world is a testament to the strong financial performance and focused execution of the Clinical ink management team,” said Vern Davenport, partner at NovaQuest. “When we acquired the business two years ago we saw the great potential in a true eSource approach to clinical trials. Our strategic focus on operational delivery capabilities and technology investment positioned the company to capitalize on the significant market opportunity ahead. We are excited to work alongside GI Partners to continue to deliver strong results to investors and customers alike.”
Mr. Seguine further commented, “The transition to true eSource as the industry standard for direct data capture (DDC), eCOA, ePRO, and eConsent is both inevitable and accelerating. The largest eClinical providers have failed to deliver the innovation this industry desperately needs at this time — many of these platforms are built on decades-old technologies and cannot adapt to the challenges and demands of today and tomorrow. Success moving forward isn’t just adding more features — rather, our goal is for the technology platform to enable operational execution to keep pace with scientific innovation in order to bring about meaningful change to the industry. GI Partners’ acquisition strengthens Clinical ink and positions us to make strategic expansions to our business in the future.”
The next generation of Clinical ink’s Lunexis eSource Ecosystem and adjacent modules, purpose-built to serve patients and sites alike, debuts this fall.
Baird served as financial advisor to Clinical ink in the transaction, while Wyrick Robbins served as legal advisor.
About Clinical ink
Clinical ink, a global clinical technology company, offers data certainty from source to submission. Our Lunexis™ eSource clinical technology and configurable direct data capture, eCOA, ePRO, and eConsent modules — a suite of solutions for capturing and integrating electronic data from sites, clinicians, and patients at its source — naturally enhance your clinical trial workflow by reducing manual labor, providing anytime, anywhere data access, and saving resources as your trials progress.
About GI Partners
GI Partners is a private investment firm with offices in San Francisco, New York, Greenwich, and Chicago. The firm has raised over $21 billion in capital from leading institutions around the world to invest in private equity, real estate, and data infrastructure strategies.