MasterControl (Salt Lake City) today announced a $150 million Series A round led by Sixth Street Growth, with a company valuation of $1.3 billion.
The money raised will accelerate the development of its quality and manufacturing software as a service (SaaS) offerings serving life sciences customers. MasterControl’s customers include Pfizer, Cochlear and Thermo Fisher Scientific. It says it has more than 1,100 customers worldwide, including 50 of the top pharma and medical device customers.
Up until this point, the privately held company had bootstrapped its way up to more than $100 million in annual revenue. It aimed to disrupt the $17 billion manufacturing execution system (MES) market with the launch of Manufacturing Excellence in 2019. It has since attracted well over 100 new customers in the MES market and has seen more than 100% growth in sales every year.
“For nearly three decades, we’ve been laser-focused on our mission to make life-changing products available to more people sooner,” MasterControl CEO Jon Beckstrand said in a news release. “This commitment has led us to attack inefficiencies in quality and manufacturing that were extending product research and delivery cycles. We see an urgent need to help our customers to deliver their breakthrough technologies to the market faster and at a lower cost.”
“Our goal is to add a strategic partner with resources and expertise to help us to meet the significant need for our solutions,” he continued. “We’re fortunate to have the experienced investment team at Sixth Street Growth to help make that a reality.”
MasterControl will use the financing to continue to build and enhance its SaaS offerings. It will also place more focus on technology to predict and prevent quality events — and enable true AI-assisted manufacturing optimization. Company officials are betting that investments in AI, machine learning and natural language processing pay off for customers, enabling them to more quickly get life-changing products to market.
In addition, MasterControl is set to enter new markets adjacent to its core pharmaceutical and medical device segments. They include contract development and manufacturing, personalized medicine, and cell and gene therapy.
“MasterControl is the SaaS leader helping strengthen the manufacturing industry’s digital transition and ensuring that life sciences and other highly regulated organizations get the safest products to consumers as fast as possible,” said Nari Ansari, managing director at Sixth Street Growth. “It has a proven business model, an accomplished leadership team, a marquee client base, and a solid track record of growth. We’re honored to be the company’s first external investor and look forward to supporting its continued success.”
