Two privately held specialty chemical firms that provide high-purity materials and services for chemical applications, from renewable energy to food and beverages and consumer safety, are combining their capabilities to serve new and expanding precision markets.
Christopher Gaines (left), CEO of IV Labs and Inorganic Ventures, and Erik Miller (right), Founder and CEO of PURE Analytical Laboratories, celebrate the acquisition along with an energetic team at the IV Labs headquarters in Virginia. Image Credit: Inorganic Ventures, Inc.
IV Labs Inc., the parent company of Inorganic Ventures, has acquired PURE Analytical Laboratories, one of the few companies that produces ultra-high purity formulations of most of the metals on the periodic table. Inorganic Ventures, a manufacturer of certified reference materials (CRMs), provides some of the highest levels of accuracy, certainty, and traceability, for quality control and analysis of impurities—along with a robust education and training program for scientists in the field. PURE produces ultra-high purity starting materials, while Inorganic Ventures uses the materials to formulate precise custom standards and produce precision custom materials.
The combined expertise and resources will bolster IV Labs’ research and development program, which is focused on developing new ultra-high purity products for emerging technologies and reducing processing requirements for a wide range of existing markets, including electronics, transportation, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage. “We are developing products and services beyond our traditional CRM market, that are based on our expertise in precision chemistry,” said Christopher Gaines, CEO of IV Labs and Inorganic Ventures.
The acquisition will also ensure that IV Labs’ spinoff venture, MERGE Chemistry, has a reliable, domestic source of precious metals and rare earth elements that play a critical role in the supply chain of current and next-generation battery technologies.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed; both firms are privately held.
Effective today, PURE will continue to operate from its existing headquarters in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, and continue to serve its customers worldwide as a subsidiary of IV Labs, of Christiansburg, Virginia.
All 100+ employees of both Inorganic Ventures and PURE Analytical Laboratories will be retained at their current locations.
Benefits of the transaction include:
- Deeper technical expertise.
- Seamless customer services.
- Development of next-generation materials for emerging technologies.
- Ability to produce new, previously unseen, purity levels on starter products.
- Improved instrumentation capabilities and lower detection limits, thanks to cleaner CRMs.
Gaines will lead the combined company. Erik Miller, founder and CEO of PURE, will become chief strategy officer of the expanded IV Labs family of companies and retain part ownership of PURE.
“We are very excited to welcome the PURE team to the family and look forward to working together to support emerging technologies and the growing critical needs for high-purity materials,” Gaines explained. “Erik’s team are experts in high-purity materials: both sourcing and cleaning them. It’s a huge niche expertise.”
Miller is looking forward to working more closely with IV Labs. “It’s a team I trust, with a shared vision and similar corporate culture,” he said. “Now, we are in the position of holding proprietary technology in a sector that grows more critical as material needs grow more precise. Our joining IV positions us to continue to improve our products as industry needs change and to pursue some big opportunities in emerging technologies. There has never been a time like this.”