Ardan Equity and GI Partners have each made new equity investments in Clinical Ink, a clinical trial technology company, forming a co-control partnership. No financial terms were disclosed. Ardan invested through Ardan Equity Fund I, while GI Partners invested through GI Partners Fund VI. Existing investors, including GI Partners Fund V, fully exited their holdings. GI first invested in Clinical Ink in 2020.
According to Noah Lewis, managing partner at Ardan, the deal is the first investment from Ardan Equity Fund I and the firm's eighth platform investment since 2020. Clinical Ink provides electronic clinical outcome assessments (eCOA), connected devices and other eClinical technologies to pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations. The company is headquartered in Winston-Salem, with offices in Iowa, Pennsylvania and Copenhagen. Jonathan Goldman serves as its CEO.
Under GI's ownership, Clinical Ink expanded its global footprint, grew revenue, moved into more therapeutic areas and deepened its preferred provider relationships with pharmaceutical companies. The company launched products including Glucose Ready and SPUR, and began expanding into clinical care disease management through its Kaitality app. Ardan and GI plan to work with management to scale the platform globally and pursue opportunities across clinical research and care.
Dave Kreter, managing director and head of healthcare at GI Partners, said the accelerating pace of pharma R&D, increasing trial complexity and the need for high-quality tech solutions will provide strong tailwinds for Clinical Ink. Centerview Partners and Guggenheim Securities served as financial advisers and Ropes & Gray as legal adviser to Clinical Ink and GI Partners Fund V. Goodwin Procter advised Ardan, Kirkland & Ellis advised GI Partners Fund VI, and Raymond James served as financial adviser to Ardan and GI Partners Fund VI.
Source: PE Hub · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing