Life sciences software firm MasterControl gets $150M in its first funding round in 30 years

MasterControl Inc., a decades-old company that sells quality and manufacturing software for the life sciences industry, announced its first outside funding today, closing on a $150 million Series A round led by Sixth Street Growth.

The company revealed it had waited almost 30 years before seeking outside funds. It said it has grown profitably in the years prior. With today’s funding round, it’s now valued at $1.3 billion.

MasterControl, which is based in Salt Lake City, was founded back in 1993 as a document-control company. It says it bootstrapped for years and has managed to attract more than 1,100 customers worldwide, including pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer Inc. and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. It currently generates more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue, with 2022 sales expected to come between $120 million and $140 million.

The company’s software is designed to make processes easier for pharmaceutical and medical-device firms. Its first product was designed to help companies navigate the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s arduous regulatory approval procedures, and it has since evolved its offerings to root out inefficiencies that result in quality control problems and product delays.

MasterCard’s funding comes at a time when drug and medical device makers are struggling with supply chain hiccups caused by the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the weak economy. Sixth Street Managing Director Nari Ansari told Forbes in an interview that the pandemic created major headaches for hundreds of life sciences and medical device firms that still rely on paper and spreadsheets. All told, he believes the total addressable market for MasterControl’s software products is more than $10 billion globally.

“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,” he said in a statement.

Chief Executive Jon Beckstrand said his company’s mission is to ensure that life-changing products can be made available to consumers sooner. “This commitment has led us to attack inefficiencies in quality and manufacturing that were extending product research and delivery cycles,” he said. “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.”

MasterControl said it will use the funds from today’s round to accelerate the development of its software-as-a-service tools. One of its plans is to enhance its existing offerings with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, so it can better predict and also prevent quality problems.

Photo: MasterControl