MasterControl Raises $150M Series A

MasterControl, a SaaS-based life sciences software company serving pharmaceutical and medical devices companies, announced today its first ever funding round —a $150 million Series A. The round was led by investment firm, Sixth Street Growth, founded in 2009 with $60 billion under management and offices throughout the globe (New York, San Francisco, London, Boston, Luxembourg, Austin, Dallas and Houston). Global boutique investment banking firm William Blair, headquartered in Chicago, acted as advisor to Sixth Street Growth in connection with the investment.

This financing round values MasterControl at $1.3 billion, conferring unicorn status to this Salt Lake City-based company.

“For nearly three decades, we’ve been laser-focused on our mission to make life-changing products available to more people sooner. 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,” says Jon Beckstrand, CEO of MasterControl. “Our goal is to add a strategic partner with resources and expertise to help us to meet the significant need for our solutions. We’re fortunate to have the experienced investment team at Sixth Street Growth to help make that a reality.” Beckstrand is pictured above with Alicia Garcia, chief culture officer at MasterControl.

This investment will allow MasterControl to build and enhance its solutions while also placing more focus on technology that will predict and prevent quality events and deploy AI assisted manufacturing. By investing in AI, machine learning and natural language processing, the company believes it can reduce the time and cost of compliance and red tape, getting life changing products to patients in timeframes that were previously not possible.

Before taking on funding, MasterControl bootstrapped its way for three decades to more than $100M in ARR with over 25% Year over Year growth to date.

The company is disrupting the $17 billion manufacturing execution system (MES) market. In 2019, it attracted over 100 new customers in the MES market and has witnessed over 100% growth in sales every year since. With half of the top 50 pharma and med device companies as customers, MasterControl is poised to enter new markets adjacent to its core pharmaceutical and medical device segments, such as 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."