RYE, N.Y.– SFW Capital Partners (“SFW”), a specialized private equity firm focused on partnering with leading founder- and family-owned companies in the industrial and life sciences technology sector, today announced that it has completed a strategic investment in Sannova Analytical, Inc. (“Sannova” or “the Company”), a leading contract research organization (“CRO”) that provides bioanalytical and Chemistry Manufacturing and Controls testing services to leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Sannova’s founders and existing owners, including the Marepalli family, Dr. Venkat Reddy, Malleswar Kollu, and Geeta Vidiyala will be reinvesting alongside SFW to retain an equity stake in the business. Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey, Sannova is well known as a strong partner to its pharmaceutical and biotech customers, fulfilling their analytical testing needs with a keen focus on quality. Its mission-critical services are utilized throughout the drug development and manufacturing process, assessing concentration of drugs and metabolites as well as product safety and efficacy.
“We are very excited to partner with the team at Sannova to build on their tremendous success and enhance the value they provide to major pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the U.S. and around the world,” said Roger Freeman, Co-Founder and Partner at SFW. “The Company is well positioned to take advantage of major industry trends, particularly the increasing tendency of biopharmaceutical companies to outsource critical activities to specialized CROs that can deliver high-quality services with great efficiency. We believe Sannova’s growth can be further accelerated through diversifying the breadth of its service offering, generating greater awareness of its capabilities in the market, and pursuing strategic acquisitions.”
“With its deep sector expertise and experience partnering with founder-owned businesses, SFW is the ideal partner for Sannova at this stage of our growth as we look to capitalize on the significant market opportunity presented by growth in drug discovery and development across various molecule types, therapies, and delivery methodologies,” said Dr. Venkat Reddy, President and Co-Founder of Sannova.
“With SFW’s strategic support, Sannova is well positioned to enter a new chapter of growth and our team is highly motivated to put our new resources to work,” said Aashritha Marepalli, Head of Business Development at Sannova. “We can invest in our people and processes to expand our services and capacity to meet growing market demand and the evolving needs of our customers.”
As part of the transaction, SFW Operating Advisor Michael Silvon will join Sannova’s Board of Directors as Executive Chairman. Dr. Silvon, who has spent his entire career in the life sciences industry, previously served as Vice President for Charles River Labs’ Global Biopharmaceutical Services division. In this role, he led over 400 employees, led international expansion into Europe, and helped his division capture global market leadership. Previously, he served as Vice President of Corporate Planning and Development at Bioanalytical Systems (now Inotiv), where he helped drive significant growth in revenue and capacity, in part through the execution and successful integration of five strategic add-on acquisitions.
SFW has led investments in numerous leading founder- and family-owned businesses in the industrial and life sciences technology sectors, including Caron Products & Services, Essen Bioscience, Filtec, Granite River Labs, Micromeritics, Pion, RDI Technologies, and Spectro Scientific, among others. In each of these investments, the combination of SFW’s industry expertise, investment track record, growth-oriented philosophy, and partnership approach helped determine the firm’s selection by the founders or family as an investment partner.
