New Company, Velsera, Represents Summa Equity's Vision to Improve Global Health Outcomes

New company Velsera was announced today at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, California. The vision for Velsera is supported by thematic-focused impact fund Summa Equity (“Summa”).

The promise of precision medicine is held back by barriers across routine health practice and discovery. Existing companies offer partial solutions, but no single company enables the unlocking of insights waiting to be revealed inside data - the status quo is siloed and disconnected. Velsera enables the democratization of omic data across clinical and research applications.

Velsera transforms science, technology, and informatics into an ecosystem of insight, making data actionable through the integration of a rich software platform, deep domain expertise, and knowledge that accelerate the pace and potential of multi-omics. Velsera sets out to amplify the impact of clinicians, researchers and scientists for the benefit of patients around the world.

Velsera’s initial formation comes with the acquisition of three global, industry-leading companies in the healthcare and life science industries: Pierian, Seven Bridges, and UgenTec. Velsera unites these companies to advance and bring together their missions which are centered around improving health globally through multi-omics and insights. The integrated business will remain actively engaged with existing customers, enhance current offerings, accelerate new offerings, and bring integrated solutions to market as the leading provider of global omics and insights.

• Pierian (www.pieriandx.com) - Based in St. Louis, MO, Pierian is a global leader in clinical genomics technology and services supporting a network of laboratories around the globe. Pierian curates the world’s genetic knowledge and offers sophisticated analysis tools to allow for rapid, concise clinical reporting. Its advanced interpretation technology uses adaptive learning algorithms to connect diverse sources of information through machine learning to ensure results are comprehensive and up to date.
  
  
• Seven Bridges (www.sevenbridges.com) - Boston, MA-based Seven Bridges enables researchers to extract meaningful insights from multi-omic, phenotypic and other high throughput data modalities. The Seven Bridges ecosystem consists of a scalable, secure multi-cloud analytic platform, petabytes of connected biomedical data and expert on-demand professional services.
  
  
• UgenTec (www.ugentec.com) - Belgian-founded (with U.S. offices) UgenTec brings sample flow intelligence to labs, assay manufacturers and instrument partners to advance modern molecular diagnostics across routine and research applications. UgenTec software and AI solutions deliver workflow automation, testing result interpretation at scale and real-time insights for the digital, connected lab. UgenTec specialties include lab automation, PCR data analysis and clinical-grade software solutions.

Velsera, headquartered in Boston, will be led by CEO Gavin Nichols. Gavin was most recently CEO of the global Medical Imaging and eClincial company Calyx, a spinout from Parexel. He has 30+ years of business experience, with 20 years in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Notably, Gavin was a life science practice partner for several years at Unisys and spent over a decade at Quintiles as a Vice President, covering divisions such as Advanced Analytics, Innovation R&D, Customer Alliances and Partnerships. Nichols has also worked at Capgemini, Bioclinica, Perspectum Diagnostics, and Certara. As the Velsera CEO he will lead a diverse team of industry experts to advance precision medicine and close the value loop between clinical testing, health care and discovery of knowledge and insights for customers that improves global human health.

On leading Velsera, Nichols said: “I am very excited to launch Velsera and look forward to leading the highly accomplished teams from Pierian, Seven Bridges, and UgenTec. Our executive team has knowledge and experience that spans the ecosystem. Collectively we understand the unmet needs of customers and partners, how various stakeholders interact directly and indirectly, and how to uniquely address the unmet needs. As Velsera, we will catalyze the conversion of siloed, global data into insights from clinical and R&D settings to reveal the true promise of precision medicine. We will provide a continuous flow of knowledge among researchers, scientists and clinicians around the world to accelerate the impact of research, expand access to clinical care, and radically improve human health.”

“Summa is driven by a mission to improve the world, through our impact-focused investments in era-defining issues. We believe that the combination of these three leading healthcare and life sciences companies will accelerate innovation and deliver change at remarkable scale, contributing to the Summa thesis and our dedication to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Velsera’s creation meets UN SDG Goal 3, good health and well-being, by reducing the cost of development of new diagnostics, therapies and drugs, as well as increasing access for underserved populations, and driving global adoption of new bio-computational methods,” comments Hans Cobben, Chair of the Board of Velsera and thematic partner at Summa Equity.

About Velsera

Velsera is the precision engine company. We connect healthcare and life sciences to reveal the true promise of precision medicine - a continuous flow of knowledge among researchers, scientists and clinicians around the world, creating insights that radically improve human health. Today Velsera comprises three global, industry leading organizations in the healthcare and life science industries: Pierian, Seven Bridges, and UgenTec, and growth and expansion should be expected in 2023 and beyond. For more information: velsera.com

About Summa Equity

Summa invests in companies that are solving global challenges and creating positive Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) outcomes for society.

Summa’s purpose is to co-create win-win for investors, portfolio companies, and society through aligning its vision and outcomes to the Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring a net-positive impact against ESG challenges, and the potential for long-term, sustainable outperformance.

Investments are focused on industries and companies that have tailwinds from megatrends within three sustainability themes: Resource Efficiency, Changing Demographics, and Tech-Enabled Transformation. Across these themes, Summa’s portfolio companies are supporting a world in transition and showing that business can be part of the solution. Summa Equity has c. EUR 4 billion assets under management. For more information: www.summaequity.com

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Contact information

Lissa Nakhwa / lissa.nakhwa@velsera.com