SkyCell closes $116 million Series D, focuses on growth in the US and Asia

Switzerland-based SkyCell has closed its $116 million Series D with $59 million from Tybourne Capital Management and CC Industries.

This follows a $57 million equity investment from Catalyst, M&G Investments’ purpose-driven private asset strategy, according to an official SkyCell press release. “The investment will be used to further expand SkyCell’s global presence, with a focus on growth in the US and Asia.”

SkyCell has developed a comprehensive approach to protecting the pharmaceutical supply chain through a combination of IP-protected, temperature-controlled containers, software and big data analytics, the press release continued. “Every month, SkyCell containers are used to protect over $2.5 billion worth of pharmaceutical products, including hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines, cancer drugs, diabetes treatments and diagnostic solutions for patients around the world.”

The protection of pharmaceutical products is based on the company’s proprietary cold chain technology as well as the SkyMind software platform, which streamlines shipping and asset management through automation and real-time visibility, the press release continues. “SkyMind enables pharmaceutical companies and their suppliers to make better decisions when designing supply chains based on three key factors: risk, cost and carbon. By accessing historical data from its large connected container fleet as well as advanced predictive analytics, SkyMind can use data to prevent the loss of medicines with greater predictability. The Decarbonize tool is part of the software suite and enables customers to predict, track and report carbon emissions and optimize routes to minimize their carbon footprint.”

Richard Ettl, co-founder and CEO of SkyCell, says: “It is an exciting time to be a technology provider to the pharmaceutical industry as the sector is experiencing rapid growth with new, breakthrough biologics coming to market. At the same time, the industry has recognised the need to decarbonise the supply chain as more than 70 per cent of medicines are shipped in single-use solutions, with disposal charges soon to be introduced. Our reusable 1500X container saves an average of 50 per cent of CO2, or in absolute terms eight tonnes of CO2e per use. For a typical pharmaceutical customer today, this means we save more than 250,000 tonnes of CO2 every year without compromising on quality.

“Finally, digitalization is reaching the pharmaceutical industry’s supply chains – away from manual spreadsheets and towards integrated workflows that leverage S+O (simulated and operational) data from our proprietary pool of billions of data points. Combined with the power of AI, this enables significant cost and risk reduction for our customers. With this new investment, we can further optimize supply chains and create truly sustainable logistics.”

Bosun Hau, Managing Director and Head of Private Equity at Tybourne Capital Management, added: “I am delighted to join SkyCell’s Board at this pivotal moment in the company’s growth. With its leading offering of hardware, software and tracking platforms, SkyCell is well positioned to become the preferred technology partner of the global pharmaceutical industry well beyond its current cold chain logistics business.

“Global supply chains are becoming increasingly complex and risk management is a board-level issue in almost every industry. For pharmaceutical companies in particular, it is critical to get life-saving medicines into the hands of patients. SkyCell has developed a comprehensive, state-of-the-art system that combines hardware, software and big data analytics, transforming a pharmaceutical logistics industry that has seen little innovation in recent decades.”