Large equity firm purchases South Dakota Mines company

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - For the first time since the 90s, a company created by South Dakota Mines staff and students was bought out. This time by a subsidiary of one of the largest private equity firms in the world.

Gamma Biosciences, created by KKR, announced Monday that they are acquiring Nanopareil.

The company was started at the college, and although Gamma Biosciences is in California, the Nanopareil will continue its work in Rapid City.

Nanopareil was started back in 2006 and is an advanced materials company that works with nanofibers.

Nanopareil created a material to help filter therapeutics and vaccines. And the co-founder, Todd Menkhaus, described it as a water filter but for drugs and said this is an exciting partnership.

“We can compete very successfully on a global scale with some of the largest companies, some of the largest private equity firms, largest investment groups in the entire world and so it really validates that that technology that’s coming out of South Dakota universities, that it’s not just something that has to stay in South Dakota,” said Menkhaus, a professor at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

Menkhaus said this partnership means working globally to get therapeutics and vaccines to people more efficiently.

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