Veeda Lifesciences has relaunched the process of exploring a majority stake sale in a deal that will value the company at $300-400 million and facilitate exits for its existing shareholders, three people familiar with the matter said.
“The deal will entail a majority stake sale – that could be in the range of 51% and later result in a full sale. Both private equity firms and strategics have been tapped as part of the process,” the first person said, adding that negotiations are underway.
“It will be a mix of primary and secondary share sale by existing including CX Partners, expected to make a complete exit as part of the transaction,” the second person cited above said. “It has engaged JP Morgan as an advisor to help with the process,” the third person added.
All the people spoke on the condition of anonymity as the discussions are still private.
The private transaction comes after two unsuccessful attempts at a public listing, in 2021 and 2025. If the current deal goes through, it would mark a complete exit for CX Partners’ eight-year-old stake and give the company the necessary boost to fund expansion plans and expand its distribution network.
CX Partners and Veeda did not respond to Mint’s requests for a comment. JP Morgan declined to comment.
Building scale
Founded in 2004 by Apurva Shah and Binoy Gardi, Veeda provides full service as well as functional service for all stages of drug development, supporting and with capabilities ranging from pre-clinical to clinical pharmacology and clinical trials across different modalities.
The company supports multiple therapeutic domains and accelerates pipelines through advanced real-world data capabilities on an AI platform.
Post its rebranding from Veeda Clinical Research Ltd (VCRL) early last year, it is now organized under four strategic business units.
The clinical trials business comprises Veeda’s operations in Europe, originally health data specialists, and patient-based clinical trials in India. Its healthy volunteer services include operations in Gujarat, including clinical bioanalysis for small molecules.
The biopharma services business in Bengaluru includes analytical and functional characterization of biologics, along with cell line and process development and clinical bioanalysis of large molecules. Its preclinical testing services, based in Karnataka, include discovery research services in chemistry and biology.
Investor backing
Veeda has raised close to $83 million since inception and is backed by investors including Actis, Sabre Partners, ValueQuest Investment Advisors, Sixth Sense Ventures, Acorn Asset Management and Ashoka India Equity Investment, among others.
It competes with top contract research organizations such as Syngene International, Navitas Life Sciences, Cliantha Research and Lambda Therapeutic Research, among others.
VCRL acquired a 100% equity stake in Heads through its wholly owned subsidiary, Veeda Clinical Research Ireland Ltd, and gradually increased its equity stake in BIPL to 91% as of 31 March 2025.
Heads is a full-service global CRO specializing in haemato-oncology trials and operates across 25 locations in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region. The acquisition enabled VCRL to participate in late-phase trials, complementing its pre-clinical and early-phase capabilities.
BIPL offers integrated discovery, development and regulatory services and has completed over 8,500 GLP studies. It operates a large pre-clinical research facility in Karnataka and caters to customers across several geographies.
These acquisitions boosted VCRL’s (which operates Veeda Lifesciences) operating revenue to ₹611 crore in FY25 from ₹389 crore in the previous year, according to a CareRatings report earlier this year.
In 9MFY26, revenue of VCRL (standalone) increased to ~ ₹222 crore compared to ~ ₹199 crore through the same period in the previous year. It posted a net loss of ₹66.81 crore from a loss of ₹36 lakh in FY24, the report showed.