Primus Capital Announces Major Growth Investment in Cayuse

Portland, OR – August 27, 2020 –  Primus Capital (Primus), announced a major growth investment in Cayuse, the market leader in research administration software. This investment comes at a time of rapid growth by Cayuse, driven in large part by the company’s focus on product innovation and its commitment to customer success. The growth capital provided by Primus will allow Cayuse to continue to enhance the company’s recently launched connected research cloud platform that facilitates more efficient and collaborative research efforts at a time of unprecedented need for globally connected research. This focus on connected research has enabled Cayuse to build the largest customer base of any research administration tech company.

In 2017, Cayuse spun off from Evisions and began operating as an independent company with investment from private equity firm, Quad Partners, one of the most active investors in privately-owned education companies in the United States.  Since then, Cayuse has more than doubled revenue and subscriptions, completed and successfully integrated four strategic acquisitions, grown the Cayuse team by more than 250%, and just last week launched its new cloud-native research platform addressing the hierarchy of administration challenges across the research lifecycle.

“We couldn’t be more excited with this additional investment which will help us to build upon our leadership position with a focus on empowering globally connected research.” said CEO Matt McLellan. “We’re proud to have both a market-leading research platform and a customer success model that meet the needs of leaders looking to rethink their processes to grow their funding and make an impact through sponsored programs.” The additional investment will immediately accelerate Cayuse’s plans to respond to key research market trends and to execute faster its broader vision of enabling globally connected research.

Phil Molner, Managing Partner at Primus, said “As the proven market leader both by platform breadth and by number of customers leveraging its research management apps, Cayuse is now in a unique position to further accelerate its growth by moving even faster on the innovation and strategic acquisition fronts.” Chris Welch, Director at Primus, added “We have long been impressed by the Cayuse management team’s passion for research and commitment to delivering solutions that allow researchers and research administrators alike to focus more on their research efforts by reducing administrative burden. We look forward to working with the team to build upon the company’s success to date.” Alongside Primus, Quad Partners and its affiliates reinvested in the company to support its next phase of growth. Macquarie Capital served as exclusive financial advisor to Cayuse on the transaction.

Besides the new solutions recently announced by Cayuse, in the first half of 2020 Cayuse also added several new customers to its family of 350+ customers. New customers included Oklahoma State University, Intuitive Surgical, North Carolina Central University, Rady’s Children’s Hospital, and UNC Greensboro, while expanding relationships with customers University of Southern California, Providence Health & Services, Illinois State University, and University of California, Los Angeles, among others.

About Cayuse
Cayuse empowers globally connected research that reimagines collaboration and drives societal progress. Our platform uniquely addresses the entire hierarchy of research challenges: minimizing risk, driving efficiency, optimizing planning, and enabling world-class, data-driven research management. The powerful yet intuitive apps on the Cayuse platform help modernize processes and increase transparency across all points of the research lifecycle. Cayuse’s community of customers includes academic institutions such as the University of North Carolina, Ohio State, and NYU; pharmaceutical and biotech companies like Amgen and La Jolla Institute; as well as healthcare providers, government agencies, and non-profit organizations.

About Primus
Primus Capital is a growth-oriented private equity firm that invests in leading software, technology-enabled services, and healthcare companies. Primus is currently managing Primus Capital Fund VIII, building on a long history of successful investing. Primus has invested in over 130 companies, partnering with exceptional management teams to accelerate growth and create shareholder value by applying our industry knowledge, financial resources, and investment experience. For more about Primus, visit primuscapital.com.