Creador, InvAscent invest in medical equipment maker Accumax
Private equity firms Creador and InvAscent said Thursday they have invested $68 million (Rs 527 crore) in Accumax Lab Devices Pvt Ltd, an Ahmedabad-based manufacturer of laboratory consumables and benchtop equipment.
This is the first new India deal for Creador this year. The PE firm, which is on course to raise its fifth fund aimed at South and Southeast Asia, had received commitment from a returning limited partner earlier this year.
For InvAscent, a healthcare-focused PE firm in India, this comes just weeks after it invested in Malladi Drugs.
Accumax was established close to two decades ago by Chirag Shah and Tejas Shah. It has become one of the largest producers of liquid handling products globally. Alongside other products in its basket, it manufactures about 200,000 pipettes annually. It says it caters to customers in over 130 countries across the world.
The company’s product basket includes pipettes and pipette controllers, bottle top dispensers, tips, tubes and PCR consumables. It has six manufacturing facilities in India and Germany, employing 1,500 people.
“Chirag and Tejas have deep design and manufacturing capabilities, with built infrastructure of 450,000 sq ft including 75,000 sq ft of clean room manufacturing facilities,” said Vaibhav Doshi of Creador. “This has enabled them to have an extensive product portfolio of more than 2,300 SKUs, becoming the supplier of choice for global customers as well as original equipment manufacturers.”
Creador was co-founded by former ChrysCapital executive Brahmal Vasudevan. It invests across India and Southeast Asia. It floated its fifth fund last year with a target of scooping up around $600 million and had garnered $500 million to make a first close last July.
The fifth fund will provide growth capital primarily to middle-market companies operating in business services, consumer goods and services, health care, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and manufacturing in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
Creador may also selectively consider investments to support businesses in Bangladesh, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
