CRF Health, a global provider of electronic Clinical Outcome Assessment (eCOA) solutions for the life sciences industry, has announced a significant investment of funds managed and advised by Vitruvian Partners, a London-based private equity firm, subject only to customary regulatory approvals.

The transaction establishes Vitruvian as majority shareholder of CRF Health, while previous majority investor Verdane Capital VII and other shareholders will exit the company.

Rachael Wyllie, CEO of CRF Health, said, “CRF Health gains access to, and support from, extraordinary global resources. This investment by Vitruvian Partners will accelerate our technology innovation and allow us to further expand our capacity to deliver industry-leading client support and consultation.”

"The use of electronic Clinical Outcome Assessments, or eCOA, has clearly come of age,” said Wyllie. “We expect growth across all aspects of the business as pharmaceutical sponsors recognize the quality gains in clinical trial data provided by the use of such technologies. Under Verdane funds' majority ownership, we have managed to grow revenues by an average of 35% per year, grow our customer base and continue to improve quality. As we seek to continue to strengthen the services we offer our client base, the investment from Vitruvian allows us to accelerate our plans and further enhance our technology and service offerings in the space."

Wyllie added, “This transaction will not change the culture or team here at CRF Health. Specifically, we will continue under my leadership as CEO and our executive management team has not changed. There will be no disruptions of service and you will continue to be served by the same account teams. We will continue to operate from our global office locations in Helsinki, Philadelphia and London.” 

Philip Russmeyer, a partner at Vitruvian, said, "Vitruvian is pleased to invest in CRF Health at a time of continued rapid market growth for eCOA. This investment will allow the company the flexibility to accelerate growth both organically and inorganically by further leveraging its market-leading technological proposition."

CRF Health provides eCOA solutions for global clinical trials. With experience in about 550 trials, over 100 languages and across 74 countries, CRF Health's TrialMax eCOA solutions demonstrate data accuracy, patient and site compliance and patient retention. CRF Health's TrialMax eCOA solutions improve trial engagement by fitting into the lives of patients and seamlessly integrating into sites to maximize protocol compliance.

Vitruvian is an independent private equity firm specializing in middle‐market buyouts, growth buyouts and growth capital investments. Vitruvian focuses on investing in 'dynamic situations' in industries characterized by rapid growth and change, such as information technology, healthcare, media, telecom, financial services, business services and leisure. Vitruvian currently is investing VIP II, its recently raised fund.