Scientist.com, a leading AI-enabled R&D orchestration platform for the life sciences sector, has officially been acquired by GHO Capital Partners following the closing of a transaction aimed at accelerating the company’s global scale and technology development. The deal positions Scientist.com for a significant expansion phase focused on international growth and enhanced AI capabilities across the pharmaceutical research ecosystem.
The partnership brings together Scientist.com’s established platform, which connects major pharmaceutical and biotech organizations with more than 6,000 pre-vetted research suppliers, and GHO Capital’s deep expertise in building and scaling high-growth healthcare technology companies. Scientist.com plans to strengthen adoption across Europe and other international markets while advancing next-generation tools, including automated contracting workflows, intelligent vendor management, and predictive modeling for outsourced research.
Founded in 2007, Scientist.com played a central role in creating the online marketplace model for outsourced scientific services. It has since evolved into a full orchestration platform that digitizes and governs the complete outsourced R&D lifecycle, helping biopharma companies reduce operational risk, improve decision-making, and accelerate research timelines. The company will continue to be headquartered in Solana Beach, California, under its current executive leadership team. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
GHO Capital Partners, which oversees more than $10 billion in assets, focuses exclusively on scaling innovative healthcare businesses across BioPharma Services, HealthTech, and Life Science Tools. The firm’s investment aims to help Scientist.com further unlock efficiency gains for global drug discovery and development by bringing more intelligence, automation, and compliance infrastructure to the outsourced R&D process.
KEY QUOTES
“This is a pivotal moment for Scientist.com and for the global research community we support. Partnering with GHO, a team that shares our vision and brings deep expertise in scaling healthcare technology companies, enables us to invest aggressively in our AI-powered orchestration platform and expand our global footprint. Together, we are better positioned than ever to meet growing demand for faster, smarter and more compliant research sourcing.”
Kevin Lustig, CEO, and Chris Petersen, CTO, Co-Founders of Scientist.com
“We are delighted to finalize our investment in Scientist.com. The company is a genuine category creator at the intersection of AI, digital commerce, and the modernization of biopharma supply chains. By joining forces, we aim to help the Scientist.com team realize its vision of putting outsourced R&D ‘on rails,’ unlocking significant efficiency gains and enabling better, faster, more accessible healthcare globally.”
Edward de Nor and Stuart Quin, Partners at GHO Capital
