Antin Infrastructure Partners announced it has agreed with Dutch family office and investment platform Gryphion to acquire Emsere, a medical equipment rental specialist that provides mission-critical devices and logistics services for clinical trials worldwide. The investment will be made through Antin’s Mid Cap Fund I, and the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, subject to customary conditions.
Headquartered in Leiden, the Netherlands, Emsere supplies contract research organizations and pharmaceutical companies with specialized clinical trial equipment, including centrifuges, vital signs devices, cardiovascular and respiratory monitoring machines, imaging devices and cardiopulmonary exercise testing equipment. The company, founded in 1996, supports trials in more than 100 countries through its own distribution centers and third-party partners and maintains a portfolio of more than 13,000 pieces of equipment.
Antin and Gryphion said Emsere serves blue-chip customers, including six of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies and seven of the top 10 CROs. They positioned the business within a growing market for outsourced, compliant and globally delivered clinical trial equipment and services, as research endpoints become more complex and sponsors seek flexibility without dedicating capital to temporary-use assets or coordinating logistics across sites.
Emsere CEO Patrice Gerard and the senior management team will invest alongside Antin. The deal will be Antin Mid Cap Fund I’s eighth investment; the fund totals €2.2 billion. Antin said it will work with management to support the next phase of growth and further consolidate Emsere’s position as an integrated equipment partner for pharma and CRO customers.
Support: Macquarie and Loyens & Loeff advised Antin, while Moelis and DLA Piper advised Gryphion.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are delighted to be partnering with Emsere’s management to support the company in its next stage of growth. Emsere is a global leader in an important and fast-growing segment of the social infrastructure sector, underpinned by favourable tailwinds and high barriers to entry. We are looking forward to working with Patrice and his team to seize the many opportunities ahead to consolidate Emsere’s position as the integrated equipment partner of choice for pharma companies and contract research organisations globally.”
Angelika Schöchlin, Managing Partner, and Omar Meziane, Partner, Antin Infrastructure Partners
“It was a pleasure and an honour to work with Patrice Gerard as CEO, Jon Raven as CCO, Pierre Otto as CFO/COO and the rest of the Emsere team and its founders in the past few years in a true partnership, setting the strategy and accelerating the growth of the company together. We are convinced that Emsere has a great future ahead of it in a very interesting and dynamic market. As always, it’s hard to say goodbye to one of our portfolio companies but we are sure that Antin is the right partner to support Emsere’s future growth.”
William Ford, Chief Investment Officer, Gryphion
“We thank Gryphion for its support over the past several years, and are excited to benefit from Antin’s expertise and experience to continue our growth journey. Antin’s track record of scaling companies makes it the ideal partner to support us in delivering best-in-class clinical trial equipment and services to our blue-chip global customers and in accelerating our expansion.”
Patrice Gerard, CEO, Emsere
