Wellington et al. divest Definiens in $150m trade sale

MedImmune wholly acquired Definiens for an initial $150m, to be followed by additional predetermined payments in the future.

Previous funding
Definiens has received €34m in growth capital from various early-stage investors since 2000.

Most recently, Wellington acquired a 10.75% stake in Definiens in June 2014 via its Wellington Partners IV Life Science Fund. It co-led the €15m series-D round alongside Gilde Healthcare. Existing backers Cipio Partners and TVM Capital also took part in the round.

October 2012 saw Gilde lead a €10m series-C round for the image analysis company, in which TVM and Cipio Partners also took part. TVM became involved with Definiens in February 2000, committing €3m in growth capital, before participating in a €6m expansion round in June 2001 alongside DaimlerChrysler Venture and Süd Venture Capital.

The sale marks Gilde's eighth exit in the past year and the third from the $200m Gilde Healthcare III Fund.

Company
Founded in 1994, Definiens provides image analysis and mines data for tissue diagnostics and clinical digital pathology. Its imaging and data analysis technology, called Tissue Phenomics, provides detailed, cell-by-cell readouts on target structures. It then correlates this information with data from other sources to enable better identification of biomarkers in tumour tissue.

MedImmune concentrates on finding predictive biomarkers in immune-oncology, which helps in selecting patients for clinical trials. According to the company, this technology could help shorten clinical trials at AstraZeneca and improve response rates.

People
Bahija Jallal is executive vice president of MedImmune. Thomas Heydler is CEO of Definiens. Rainer Strohmenger is a general partner at Wellington Partners. Janke Dittmer led the deal for Gilde Healthcare.

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• DACH
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• Wellington Partners