We are pleased to announce that Corten Capital has signed a binding agreement to acquire Beacon Intelligence (“Beacon” or the “Company”) from the Hanson Wade Group, itself backed by Graphite Capital. Beacon is the third investment from Corten Capital II, which closed in March 2024 with €680 million in capital commitments. As the new majority owner, Corten is partnering with Beacon’s management, led by its CEO Rob Poolman and Chair Sati S. Sian, to support the next phase of Beacon’s growth as an independent company.
Beacon was founded in 2015 within the Hanson Wade Group, an Events and Conferences operator focused on the life sciences industry, to address a critical gap in structured, granular data on early-stage drug development. The Beacon platform is now used daily by over 300 customer organisations globally, including 24 of the world’s 30 largest pharmaceutical companies, to track competitive pipelines, identify licensing and acquisition opportunities, and inform R&D investment decisions. The company has built a unique dataset within 16 distinct modules covering complex modalities in drug development, including ADCs, Bispecifics, and RNA, alongside a growing suite of disease-based modules including Oncology and Neuroscience, with further coverage extensions planned.
Rob Poolman commented:
“Beacon has been built by an exceptional team of scientists, engineers and commercial colleagues, united by a belief that better data improves drug development decisions and delivers better outcomes for patients. With Corten’s partnership, we see a significant opportunity to deepen our platform, expand our data coverage, and strengthen our position as the intelligence partner of choice for the world’s leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies. We are excited about what this next chapter means for our customers and for the broader drug development community.”
Sati S. Sian commented:
“Beacon has established itself as a trusted intelligence platform for the life sciences industry, distinguished by the quality of its data and the strength of its scientific expertise. Over the past several years, the business has evolved significantly in both scale and strategic importance, becoming a platform that the world’s leading drug developers rely on every day. I am delighted to continue as Chair and look forward to working with Corten Capital, whose experience in B2B data and software aligns closely with Beacon’s ambitions to realise the Company’s full potential.”
Alexandre Michelson and Niklas Nikolai, Partners at Corten Capital, commented:
“We are delighted to partner with Rob, Sati, and the exceptional Beacon Intelligence team. Beacon has built a unique position in drug development intelligence. Its proprietary ontologies, unique data set, scientist-led curation, and the consistently strong feedback we have received from the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies all speak to a platform that has earned its place at the centre of critical life sciences R&D decisions. This investment sits squarely within Corten Capital’s investment strategy and we look forward to supporting Beacon in its next growth chapter.”
About Beacon Intelligence www.beacon-intelligence.com
Beacon Intelligence is a deep and comprehensive drug development intelligence platform, offering unique technology and drug datasets for complex therapeutics and disease states. Founded in 2015, the company employs 135 people and leverages proprietary ontologies and expert-curated datasets across modality and therapeutic area modules, delivering data, insights, analytics and workflow solutions to the world’s leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies at every stage of the drug development journey.
About Corten Capital www.cortencapital.com
Corten Capital is a uniquely focused private equity firm that partners with talented management teams to build market leading B2B Software, Data & Services businesses across Europe and North America. Corten is backed by an exceptional group of university endowments, charitable foundations and family offices from North America, Europe, and Asia, who share its philosophy of investing for long term value creation through technology-led growth and innovation. Since 2020, Corten has raised €1.2 billion across two funds and is currently investing from Corten Capital II, which was closed in March 2024 with €680 million in capital commitments. Corten Advisors UK LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK.
