Shackleton sells Nanosight for £15m

Amy King
02 October 2013

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Shackleton Ventures has sold Nanosight, a developer of particle-size measurement instrumentation, to Malvern Instruments for ТЃ15m.

Shackleton Secondaries II, which was formed in 2007 and has completed 22 investments to date, held an 18% interest in the company. The exit was profitable, the GP said in a statement.

The buyer is a subsidiary of Spectris, a listed supplier of precision instrumentation and controls.

Previous funding
Shackleton first backed the company in 2008. The following year, the GP provided follow-on funding to the firm through the acquisition of a significant shareholding from the National Endowment for Science, Technology & Arts (Nesta).

The firm's history with private equity began in 2005, when Strathdon Investments led a £500,000 round for the firm with co-investment from the South West Ventures Fund, managed by YFM Equity Partners. Lesmoir-Gordon, Boyle & Co (LGB) is also counted as an investor.

Company
Founded in 2003 and based in Amesbury, Wiltshire, Nanosight designs and manufactures particle-size measurement instrumentation for the scientific analysis of nanoparticles. The company has achieved compound revenue growth of 64% per year between 2007 and 2012. Turnover reached £5.7m in 2012.

Nanosight employs around 50 members of staff.

People
Hugh Stewart is a managing partner at Shackleton. Andrew Boyle is director of LGB's investment advisory department.

John Knowles co-founded NanoSight and was previously chairman, however, following the deal he will step down. Jeremy Warren is CEO of NanoSight.

Paul Walker is managing director of Malvern Instruments.