Global market leader FAGRON acquires HiperScan from HTGF

Bonn, Germany — Fagron, a global leader in phar­maceu­ti­cal manu­fac­tu­ring, announ­ced on April 14 that it has acqui­red Hiper­Scan, the German market leader in the secure iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of start­ing mate­ri­als in phar­macies. High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) is selling its shares after having closely supported the team around Dr. Alex­an­der Wolter and Michael Thoma since 2008.

The Dres­­den-based tech­no­logy company Hiper­Scan is a specia­list in near-infrared (NIR) spec­tro­scopy and emer­ged in 2006 as a spin-off from the Fraun­ho­fer Insti­tute for Photo­nic Micro­sys­tems (IPMS) to deve­lop inno­va­tive analy­sis systems for phar­macies and other indus­tries. With the Apo-Ident analy­sis system, which is speci­ally desi­gned for the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of start­ing mate­ri­als and is used in over 5,500 phar­macies, Hiper­Scan has achie­ved market leader­ship in this segment in Germany and today employs over 50 people.

Fagron is a global leader in the phar­maceu­ti­cal manu­fac­tu­ring of perso­na­li­zed medi­ci­nes, focu­sed on provi­ding perso­na­li­zed medi­cine to hospi­tals, phar­macies, clinics and pati­ents in 35 count­ries around the world. Foun­ded in 1990, the company has over 3,000 employees world­wide. As part of the Fagron family, new markets may open up for HiperScan’s tech­no­logy to further enhance safety and drive the future of perso­na­li­zed medicine.

“HTGF joined us shortly after we were foun­ded, which enab­led us to deve­lop Fraun­ho­fer IPMS Dresden’s scan­ning grating tech­no­logy into a market-ready product. Then we gradu­ally evol­ved from a tech­no­logy provi­der to an estab­lished provi­der of indus­try solu­ti­ons that is now conside­red the gold stan­dard in German phar­macies. As part of Fagron, we can help drive the future of perso­na­li­zed medi­cine,” Dr. Alex­an­der Wolter, CEO at HiperScan.

“I have a special connec­tion with Hiper­Scan: On the one hand, the company was my first invest­ment in 2008 as a young invest­ment mana­ger at that time! On the other hand, Hiper­Scan is a prime exam­ple for seed finan­cing of tech­no­lo­gi­cally very deep compa­nies. This is all the more true since Hiper­Scan was foun­ded with MEMS tech­no­logy out of the Fraun­ho­fer IPMS. With Fagron, Hiper­Scan has now found a perfect new owner.” Explains Dr. Andreas Olmes, Prin­ci­pal at High-Tech Gründerfonds.

“We at Fraun­ho­fer Venture first came into cont­act with the Hiper­Scan spin-off idea in 2004. Mana­ging Direc­tor Alex­an­der Wolter was among the first parti­ci­pants in a now estab­lished educa­tio­nal measure for pros­pec­tive foun­ders. At the same time, the Hiper­Scan spin-off idea was supported by the prede­ces­sor program of the current AHEAD program and recei­ved further inter­nal funding after its foun­da­tion with the goal of manage­ment expan­sion.” Manfred Stöger, Invest­ment Mana­ger at Fraun­ho­fer Venture.