Lyon-based Inova buys online university-industry matchmaking platform

France-based cloud-based solution Inova has acquired Sheffield and London-based IN-PART, a digital matchmaking platform dedicated to academia-industry collaboration.
Lyon-based Inova buys online university-industry matchmaking platform

France-based cloud-based solution Inova has acquired Sheffield and London-based IN-PART, a digital matchmaking platform dedicated to academia-industry collaboration. The recent move will consolidate Inova’s position as a leader in the digitalisation of the biopharma partnering space. The acquisition happens on the back of its €60 million investment from global private equity firm Carlyle. The Lyon-headquartered company had earlier bought European biotech news media Labiotech,

By creating a stronger, more connected research ecosystem, this acquisition will ensure academic breakthroughs have an even greater impact on society. While IN-PART will continue to service and expand its platforms for all research sectors, by joining forces with Inova, the company will gain access to Inova’s software infrastructure, as well as their market-leading teams in product and marketing. Inova clients will benefit from access to IN-PART search and discovery platforms, as well as leveraging best practice in matchmaking technology.

Gilles Toulemonde, Founder and CEO of Inova said: “There is a growing consensus in the biopharma partnering world that academia is the next gamechanger. However, our customers often report how difficult it is to navigate the extensive science produced by university groups. IN-PART has built an impressive digital solution to tackle this exact challenge and by acquiring them, we are now bringing our mission full-circle and including academia in the next gen partnering world. Together, we’re helping untapped science reach the market through smart partnering.”

“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,” Patrick Speedie, Co-founder and Director of IN-PART said.

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.”

Inova supports more than 160 global clients, including many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies while IN-PART develops curated digital solutions that drive impact from research by simplifying the initial connection between teams in academia and industry across all sectors. Its matchmaking platform, Connect, is used by over 250 universities and research institutes to find new partners for commercialisation in over 6,000 companies.

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