Phoenix Equity Partners (“Phoenix”), a leading UK middle-market private equity firm, today announces an investment in Sygnature Discovery Limited (“Sygnature” or “the Company”) alongside the current management team, led by CEO and founder Simon Hirst. The transaction will provide Sygnature with additional investment to support the Company’s continued development and growth.
Sygnature is a leading provider of outsourced drug discovery services to UK and overseas biotech and pharma companies. Sygnature operates from state of the art facilities in Nottingham and employs over 200 staff, most of whom are PhD scientists. Phoenix will work with Simon Hirst and the Sygnature management team to accelerate the growth of the business.
Kevin Keck, Partner at Phoenix, said: “Sygnature is a very well-respected business with a strong reputation in an attractive and growing segment of the pharma services sector. Simon and his team have built a great company with a fantastic track record of undertaking high quality scientific research. We are delighted to be partnering with them at a time of continuing rapid growth and significant opportunity in the drug discovery market.”
Simon Hirst, CEO of Sygnature, commented: “We are extremely proud of our people and our culture at Sygnature, which is focused on undertaking leading edge research in drug discovery and providing a great service for our customers. We are excited to be working with Phoenix – our partnership will provide us with investment to expand our business further and to provide a broader range of services for our customers.”
Sygnature is Phoenix’s fourth investment from its 2016 Fund and third this year, following investments in The Travel Chapter, Rayner Surgical and Global Freight Solutions.