The Riverside Company Cell-ebrates with Sale of Red Nucleus

The Riverside Company (Riverside), a global investment firm focused on the smaller end of the middle market, has sold its investment in Red Nucleus, a leading global strategic partner to the life sciences industry, to Thomas H. Lee Partners, a Boston-based private investment firm.

Riverside Capital Appreciation strategy (RCAF) originally invested in Red Nucleus, headquartered in Yardley, Pennsylvania, in December 2019. Red Nucleus is an industry-leading integrated provider of learning and development, medical communications, market access and R&D and clinical solutions to the life sciences industry globally. The company’s comprehensive commercial, medical and clinical service and software solutions span all stages of the product cycle to help provide lasting value for key stakeholders, including pharmaceutical organizations, HCPs and patients.

The breadth and depth of the company’s services and products have enabled Red Nucleus to become a valuable one-stop shop and trusted partner to its customers across the entirety of the drug development lifecycle. The company serves more than 200 organizations, including innovative biotech start-ups and the majority of the top 25 global pharmaceutical companies by market capitalization, helping advance life sciences solutions and improve patient health outcomes globally.

“It was such a pleasure working with the talented Red Nucleus team through this period of transformational growth,” said RCAF’s Co-Chief Investment Officer Peter Tsang. “We delivered a successful organic growth strategy. In addition, we integrated 11 add-on acquisitions which meaningfully enhanced Red Nucleus’ value proposition to its customers with a more diversified set of service offerings and broader geographic reach with 11 offices across four continents.”

Red Nucleus is another example of Riverside’s expertise in investing in and growing businesses in the Business Services and Education & Training sectors. Since its inception in 1988, Riverside has invested in more than 380 companies in the Business Services sector and more than 120 in the Education & Training sector.

“Riverside was a great partner that worked alongside us to significantly expand the platform while investing in our team and infrastructure to position us for long-term growth. Together, we developed a bold vision and strategy to build an outstanding pharma services organization that I am extremely proud of,” said Red Nucleus CEO Ian Kelly.

Working with Tsang on the deal for Riverside were Vice President Mark Fishman, Senior Associate Ben Wilson, Associate Ryan Stead and Senior Operating Partner J.P. Fingado. Senior Partner Anne Hayes led the capital market initiatives throughout the investment period. Peter Tsang also sourced the original deal for Riverside.

Houlihan Lokey, Piper Sandler and Jones Day advised Riverside on the sale of Red Nucleus.