Scientist.com Announces Agreement to Be Acquired by GHO Capital Partners

Strategic partnership accelerates the company’s mission to transform pharmaceutical R&D

NEWS RELEASE
Solana Beach, CA — 16 September 2025: Scientist.com, the leading AI-enabled R&D orchestration platform for the life sciences industry, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by GHO Capital Partners LLP (“GHO”), a specialist investor in global healthcare.

This milestone transaction validates Scientist.com’s pioneering role in transforming outsourced research procurement. For over 17 years, the company has helped pharmaceutical and biotech organizations source innovation faster, more efficiently, and with stronger governance. The new partnership with GHO positions Scientist.com to accelerate global growth, expand its product capabilities, and deepen its impact across biopharma R&D.

A Shared Vision for the Future of R&D
The partnership between Scientist.com and GHO Capital is built on a common mission: to transform the way biopharma organizations discover, source, and manage R&D. By combining Scientist.com’s category-defining platform with GHO’s deep sector expertise and proven track record of scaling healthcare leaders, the company is positioned to accelerate its impact on a global scale.

“GHO’s expertise across our key market segments and proven ability to scale life sciences leaders make them the ideal partner to help us grow globally,” said Kevin Lustig, PhD, Andy Martin, PhD, and Chris Petersen, Founders of Scientist.com. “Together, we can put outsourced R&D ‘on rails’ — delivering shorter timelines, stronger governance, and clearer visibility from concept to clinic.”

Dan Kagan, PhD, President & COO and Diana Ourthiague, PhD, Chief Customer Officer of Scientist.com added: “This partnership is about unlocking our next chapter of growth. By joining forces with GHO, we’ll be able to expand globally faster, bring new AI-driven capabilities to market, and continue to raise the bar on how outsourced preclinical and clinical research is managed. The opportunity ahead is to make Scientist.com the essential operating system for external R&D.”

Edward de Nor and Stuart Quin, Partners at GHO, said, “Scientist.com is a category-defining platform that transforms how biopharma companies manage R&D procurement, seamlessly integrating software, data, and outsourced services. The alignment between our expertise in pharmaceutical R&D, biotechnology, and life science tools, and Scientist.com’s market leadership, creates a unique opportunity to accelerate its growth. We are excited to partner with the team to expand global adoption and advance innovation, in line with our mission to deliver better, faster, more accessible healthcare.”

Based in Solana Beach, California, Scientist.com is a global leader in life sciences R&D procurement, trusted by the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, hundreds of biotech firms, and thousands of suppliers. The platform provides an end-to-end compliance solution that unifies supplier discovery, bidding, contracting, compliance, and spend analytics within a secure ecosystem. This enables users to achieve double-digit cost savings while cutting project timelines from months to days. With a first-mover advantage and over a decade of growth, Scientist.com is the trusted partner for companies seeking to optimise their external R&D procurement.

Delivering Efficiency and Innovation
R&D procurement remains fragmented and manual, creating delays, cost overruns, and compliance risks. Scientist.com connects pharmaceutical and biotech teams to a curated global network of pre-vetted suppliers on one secure platform. Powered by proprietary AI, the platform orchestrates the full external-research lifecycle - supplier qualification, compliance enforcement, intelligent vendor matching, automated contracting, predictive project modeling, and smart negotiation - helping customers compress cycle times, reduce risk, and improve spend transparency.

Today, Scientist.com powers private marketplaces for many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and hundreds of biotech firms. With more than a decade of growth and a first-mover advantage, the company is the trusted partner for organizations seeking to modernize and optimize R&D procurement. The company has been fortunate to have the support of 5AM Ventures, Transformation Capital, and Bootstrap Ventures Partners, whose belief in its mission helped fuel Scientist.com’s growth from startup to global leader.

The transaction is expected to close later this year, subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions.

About Scientist.com
Scientist.com is the leading AI-enabled R&D orchestration platform for the life science industry. The platform simplifies drug discovery and clinical development by streamlining procurement, accelerating innovation, ensuring regulatory compliance and connecting scientists with a global network of pre-qualified suppliers. Scientist.com powers private marketplaces for many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and hundreds of biotech firms. For more information, please visit www.scientist.com.

About GHO Capital
Global Healthcare Opportunities, or GHO Capital Partners LLP, is a leading specialist healthcare investment advisor headquartered in London. GHO applies global capabilities and perspectives to unlock high-growth healthcare opportunities, partnering with management teams to build market-leading businesses that deliver better, faster, more accessible healthcare. Learn more at www.ghocapital.com.

Advisors
Scientist.com was advised by Union Square Advisors and Wilson Sonsini. GHO was advised by Ropes & Gray, ClearView Healthcare Partners, West Monroe, and Deloitte.

Media Contact (Scientist.com) marketing@scientist.com
Media Contact (GHO Capital) ghocapital@icrhealthcare.com