WAYNE, Pa., July 12, 2022
Argosy Healthcare Partners (“AHP”), a lower middle market private equity investor focused exclusively on healthcare, and a division of Argosy Capital, a diversified investment firm with $2.7 billion in assets under management, is pleased to announce that it completed the recapitalization and merger of Hudson Robotics (“HR”) and Art Robbins Instruments (“ARI” and, together with HR, the “Company”). The Company is a life sciences tools business focused on designing, assembling, and integrating automated liquid handling instruments used in the biopharma, pharma, OEM, and academic end markets. AHP is honored to partner with HR and ARI – continuing the legacies of founders Phil Farrelly and Art and Matt Robbins – and is excited to back Andrew Witschi as CEO (most recently COO of HR).
Hudson Robotics, headquartered in Springfield, New Jersey, and founded in 1983 by Phil Farrelly, designs and produces automated liquid handling instruments, colony pickers, and microplate handling robotics used in a variety of life sciences end-markets and applications in support of the drug discovery and synthetic biology processes. HR combines its internally developed software, SoftLinx™, with hardware, to sell standalone instruments, workstations, fully integrated systems, and original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) products. HR focuses primarily on the biopharma, pharma, diagnostics, and OEM end markets.
Art Robbins Instruments, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and founded in 2003 by Art Robbins, Matt Robbins, and Dave Wright, designs and assembles instruments for protein crystallography, liquid handling, and tissue typing and sells primarily to the academic market. ARI’s founding team previously worked together at Robbins Scientific, an instruments and tools business that was sold in 1999.
Andrew Witschi commented, “I am excited to partner with AHP and join forces with ARI to build a world class life sciences tools platform. We have known Matt, Dave and their team for many years and have long admired their products, technology and focus on customer service. Both Hudson Robotics and Art Robbins Instruments have storied histories of innovation, customer care, and creating high-quality instruments with unique capabilities. Together, we are excited to honor our legacies while accelerating growth through reinvestment in commercialization, product development and software (SoftLinx™).”
Global demand for life sciences lab automation solutions is growing rapidly driven by rapid technological advances in mass spectrometry, sequencing technologies and other products as well as the demand from pharma and biotech labs to automate more and more applications and tasks. Paul Barrett, Managing Partner of AHP, stated, “We are thrilled to back Andrew Witschi as CEO, and partner with Matt Robbins as President of ARI and Board Member. Our life sciences tools strategy is to partner with great founders and teams that have terrific products and blue-chip customer bases but have historically underinvested in their commercialization efforts and sales. HR and ARI have terrific products and longstanding customer relationships and there is a tremendous opportunity to accelerate growth through reinvestment in the commercialization engine.”
“I am proud of what our team at ARI has accomplished over the last nearly 20 years and am excited to partner with HR and AHP to accelerate our growth while continuing to offer innovative products and provide outstanding customer service. Our organizations share strong cultural common ground and a highly complementary portfolio of products and internal capabilities. We look forward to the journey together and reinvesting in our sales efforts and product development to take the combined company to the next level” said Matt Robbins, President of ARI and Board Member of the Company.
Hudson Robotics
Hudson Robotics, founded in 1983, and headquartered in Springfield, New Jersey, designs and assembles liquid handling, microplate automation, laboratory robotics, and customized software-driven laboratory automation solutions for life-sciences research. HR’s instruments are used in drug discovery, clinical research, and pharmaceutical development. HR sells its software, instruments and workstations primarily to the pharma, biopharma, and OEM end markets.
Art Robbins Instruments
Art Robbins Instruments, founded in 2003 in Sunnyvale CA, is a leading designer and manufacturer of automated instruments and consumables used for protein crystallization, liquid handling, tissue typing, and high throughput experimentation, primarily for use in the academic end market.
Argosy Healthcare Partners
Argosy Healthcare Partners (“AHP”) is dedicated to partnering with entrepreneurial founders and talented management teams and together building market leading platforms. AHP partners with founder owned healthcare businesses anywhere in the US with $1.0 – $3.0 million of EBITDA and executes majority control transactions. AHP is a platform built for founder-owned companies to support their culture, reinvest in their business, and accelerate growth.
