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Ampersand Approach

Strategy & Creativity

At the heart of Ampersand’s success is its investment philosophy, centered on minority and majority equity investments in growth-oriented life sciences companies. Working side-by-side with founders, Ampersand seeks to drive growth through organic and inorganic strategies, focusing on key life sciences sub-segments in which the firm has extensive industry experience.

Target Selection:

Cultivating Tomorrow’s Life Sciences Leaders

Our target selection process focuses on visionary founders with scientific innovations, products and services poised for market success. With revenue between $10-100 million and positive EBITDA, we seek compelling assets within key life sciences sub-segments, often becoming the first institutional investor.

Relationship Building:

Connecting with Founders

Our strategic development approach involves reaching out to around 2,000 targets annually, visiting 150-200 companies, and maintaining regular dialogue with priority target companies and their founders, often over many years, to understand their business, challenges, opportunities and how Ampersand can help.

Creative Transactions:

Tailored Investment Opportunities

We specialize in both minority and majority deals, emphasizing the best available assets. Our transactions typically involve preferred stock, meaningful founder rollovers, the exploration of platforms and pre-platforms, as well as carve-outs.

Post-Investment M&A:

Transformative Growth

Our fully integrated engagement leads to post-investment M&A strategies, including buy-and-builds, transformative combinations, and reverse add-ons.

Meet the Ampersand Leadership Team

Value Beyond Capital

Ampersand seeks to enable success via engagement at the Board level and with management teams, who remain responsible for the day-to-day operations of their business while leveraging our team’s expertise in:

Domain Knowledge

Decades of experience working with healthcare companies make us a well-informed sounding board for discussion of new ideas.

Strategy & Operations Input

Proven expertise in assisting our portfolio companies in refining their strategic plans and operational investment decisions to drive growth.

Industry Networking

Established relationships with key customers and industry experts give us an advantage in identification of market, competitive and technology trends, development of external business relationships, and recruitment of additional management talent.

Portfolio Company Interaction

We actively facilitate opportunities to collaborate and share best practices across Ampersand portfolio companies.

Enhancing Capabilities

A strong track record of successful portfolio company development and growth through “bolt-ons” as well as transformative M&A transactions.

Investment Criteria

Company Size

Typically $ to $ million in revenue
at least $ to $ million of EBITDA

Investment Size

$ to $ million of equity

Ownership

Either majority or minority positions

Geography

North America
Europe
APAC

Use of Capital

  • Business expansion / growth equity
  • Recapitalization / shareholder liquidity
  • Management buyouts
  • Corporate divestitures

Company History

Founded 35 years ago, Ampersand Capital Partners stands as one of America’s oldest private equity firms, boasting a legacy of success in the life sciences sector.

With a robust portfolio of 80+ companies across key sub-segments and $3 billion in assets under management, Ampersand has been instrumental in shaping some of the most notable success stories in the industry. Currently investing out of its eleventh fund, Ampersand continues to leverage more than three decades of private equity experience in life sciences.

  • Founded
  • + portfolio companies
  • $ billion in assets under management
  • + global portfolio locations since
  • The Firm recognitions presented are from third-parties that are not affiliated with Ampersand Capital Partners. These third-parties independently assess nominees based on multiple criteria. The awards and designations presented are the opinion of the respective parties conferring the award or designation and not of Ampersand. Recognitions by third-parties are not indicative of future performance. Ampersand may pay a licensing or related fee to participate and/or distribute the results. The receipt of compensation influences and is likely to present a potential material conflict of interest, relating to any granted award or designation. There can be no assurance that other providers or surveys would reach the same conclusions as the foregoing. Please also see the individual award icons and their respective hyperlinks to review the specific recognition disclaimers in full detail.

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