IN-PART – a matchmaking platform for collaboration between university and industry – has been acquired by Inova, a Lyon-headquartered provider of cloud-based solutions.
Inova, which helps science companies locate and manage their biopharma opportunities, employs more than 125 and also has offices in New York, Denver and Tokyo.
It has moved for IN-PART not long after its recent acquisition of biotech news media platform Labiotech, and received €60 million investment from private equity firm Carlyle in 2021.
Following the acquisition Sheffield-based IN-PART will expand its platform for all sectors, accessing Inova’s software infrastructure and product and marketing teams. Inova’s clients – which works with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies – will also benefit from IN-PART’s search and discovery platforms.
The Sheffield company’s matchmaking platform Connect is relied upon by more than 250 universities and institutions to identify partners for commercialisation at 6,000 companies.
Patrick Speedie, Co-founder and Director of IN-PART, said: “In Inova, we’ve found a great strategic fit across our technology base and close alignment in terms of company values and culture. It will give us access to a lot more resources and expertise for IN-PART to accelerate its growth and achieve its vision of connecting the academia-industry ecosystem, across all the research fields and sectors we work with.”
Robin Knight, Co-founder and Director of IN-PART, added: “The union of our companies, along with the exchange of expertise and technology across our teams will allow us to accelerate the pace at which we’re helping to surface the next generation of treatments and technologies.”
