Global private equity healthcare specialist ARCHIMED announced the acquisition of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based genetic sequencing provider SeqCenter. And SeqCenter’s founding scientists initially worked at the University of Pittsburgh. Unhappy with the pace, cost, and difficulty of obtaining sequencing data from existing vendors and academic core laboratories, they developed their approach to gene sequencing, leaving academia and founding SeqCenter in 2019.
SeqCenter is now a leading service provider of a recently developed technology, Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), used to map the DNA and RNA information that cells use to develop and operate. NGS sequences genes more rapidly, with greater reliability, and at a lower cost than traditional techniques. This makes it easier to develop new gene therapies, discover new microbes, and even improve crop yields, contributing to human and environmental health.
ARCHIMED’s MedValue template—the firm’s playbook for accelerating the growth of partnering companies—will help drive SeqCenter’s internationalization in Europe and Asia and enable it to rapidly develop more advanced sequencing technologies. SeqCenter has an impressive record of high double-digit annual revenue and profit growth.
SeqCenter’s client base includes academic institutions that require advanced sequencing technologies for research in genetics, biology, and medicine; industrial customers, including pre-clinical biotech, diagnostics, and food & agriculture players, who utilize genomic sequencing for drug development, personalized medicine, and crop improvement; and governmental health agencies and research bodies who seek robust sequencing services to support public health initiatives, disease surveillance, and large-scale genomic studies. And SeqCenter positively contributes to patients’ outcomes, by improving healthcare safety, efficiency, efficacy and affordability.
Next-generation sequencing is a subsector that ARCHIMED’s Diagnostics and Life Science Sector Teams identified as very attractive. The company was sourced through ARCHIMED’s MedDiscover approach. MedDiscover is a set of tools, processes, and systems permitting ARCHIMED to identify and approach leading companies operating in ARCHIMED’s prioritized subsectors.
ARCHIMED acquired SeqCenter through its MED Rise fund, which closed last April on its hard cap (i.e. absolute maximum size) of €400 million after being three times oversubscribed. MED Rise is ARCHIMED’s small-cap fund dedicated to buyouts typically valued at €10 million to €30 million. The fund broadens ARCHIMED’s investment spectrum and allows the firm to invest from €10 million to €1 billion in its targeted sectors.
ARCHIMED’s performance is especially strong regarding cash-to-cash returns. Since its founding, it has had a constant flow of liquidity events and distributions, including in the last two years when most players struggled to provide liquidity.
KEY QUOTES:
“SeqCenter is part of one of the most transformational developments in the world of life sciences today with the potential to be at the center of an ever-expanding scope of health applications.”
- Vincent Guillaumot, Managing Partner at ARCHIMED
“We’re at an inflection point, and it’s clear that partnering with ARCHIMED – leveraging on its global reach and extensive network – will unlock significant value-creation opportunities to serve global clients and to source the most innovative technologies globally. Partnering with ARCHIMED will propel SeqCenter into its next phase of growth.” Snyder is rolling over a significant portion of his proceeds from the sale back into SeqCenter.
- Dan Snyder, Founder and CEO of SeqCenter
