Real Chemistry
A New York-based healthcare marketing and communications network, owned by New Mountain Capital through a $3.1 billion continuation fund, betting that its own AI tools keep pharma clients from going in-house.
Real Chemistry release, Mar 2, 2026- Revenue
- $560M 2025, up 14%, but on a base that no longer includes Swoop, spun out in 2024.
- Valuation
- Not disclosed the Apr 2025 continuation vehicle raised $3.1B to buy the company from New Mountain's Fund V.
- Watch
- Hybrid, not remote-first staff within an hour of an office are asked in two days a week; many postings still list remote US.
- AI
- Selling AI to pharma ANATOMI (Jul 2026) and MaestroHCP (Oct 2026), built with AWS, plus a Chief AI Products Officer.
- Liquidity
- No staff tender found the 2025 deal gave New Mountain's old fund investors an exit, not employees, as far as public sources show.
- Hiring
- 45 → 65 remote listings since Oct 10.
Paid by drug makers to market and explain their medicines.
Real Chemistry sells agency services to life sciences companies: medical communications and publications, creative (21GRAMS), PR and integrated communications, market access, precision media, analytics and omnichannel marketing. It increasingly bundles proprietary AI tools such as HealthGEO, ANATOMI and MaestroHCP into that work. No revenue split by service has been published.
realchemistry.com Who We Are, checked Nov 3, 2026- 1One network from medical science to media buyingMedical communications, creative, PR, market access, analytics and precision media sit under one roof, across 14 main hubs from Boston to Singapore.realchemistry.com Who We Are, checked Nov 3, 2026
- 2Owned AI tools, not just peopleMaestroHCP scores more than 600 signals per doctor and was built with AWS Professional Services; preliminary pilots claim up to 57% higher engagement (company figure).MarTech Edge (PR Newswire), Oct 5, 2026
- 3A buyer of specialist shopsAdded Greater Than One (Jul 2025) and Spring & Bond (Oct 2025), giving it a media group of 250+ experts.Real Chemistry release, Oct 15, 2025
- IQVIA$44.1Blisted, Oct 30 close
- Omnicom$22.2Blisted, Oct 30 close
Private values are the last reported round; they can be stale. Listed values are market value. Bars start at zero.
Every round, and what its terms give away.
Real Chemistry is private, so there is no share price. What its investors paid, and on what terms, is the closest thing to one.
- $560M
- annual revenue, as of Dec 31
- +14%
- growth, as reported
- 2,400
- employees, as reported
EBITDA and profit not disclosed.
Real Chemistry releases, Mar 2 and Jul 14, 2026 (employees 2,400+)- Apr 22Single-asset continuation vehicle$3.10BLed by New Mountain Capital (sponsor); Coller Capital reported as lead investorBought Real Chemistry from New Mountain Partners V. Coller's role is from pre-close reporting citing unnamed sources; final investor list not published.Simpson Thacher, Apr 22, 2025
- May 29New Mountain Capital buyoutLed by New Mountain CapitalTerms not disclosed. Mountaingate Capital, the 2016 investor, exited. Revenue was expected to top $200M that year.New Mountain Capital release, May 29, 2019
- Priced above the last deal?Neither the 2019 buyout nor the 2025 continuation vehicle disclosed a valuation. The vehicle's $3.1B size beat a reported $2.5B target, which hints at investor demand.Simpson Thacher, Apr 22, 2025Open
- How much the deal soldEffectively all of it moved: the vehicle bought Real Chemistry from New Mountain's Fund V. It was a change of fund, not a minority raise.Simpson Thacher, Apr 22, 2025Clear
- Time since the last dealAbout 18 months since the Apr 2025 close; New Mountain has owned it since 2019.Simpson Thacher, Apr 22, 2025Clear
- New outside owner or the same one?The same one. A continuation vehicle lets New Mountain keep control with new backers; Transacted reported it expected to roll its full economics.Transacted (citing Buyouts), Nov 14, 2024Flag
- Unusual terms or heavy debt?Debt levels, preferences and the vehicle's terms were not published.Simpson Thacher, Apr 22, 2025Open
- Can staff sell shares?No employee tender offer or staff equity program found in releases or press.Real Chemistry newsroom, checked Nov 3, 2026Open
- Layoffs in the last 12 months?None found in company news or press searches since Nov 2025. An earlier cut of 66 roles (3%) was reported by trade press, outside this window.Real Chemistry newsroom, checked Nov 3, 2026Clear
Clear: checked, nothing found. Flag: found, with the source. Open: could not be checked.
What the record says, and what we think it means.
The fact is the source's. The read, in italics, is ours.
- 01Watch
Its own policy is hybrid, not remote-first.
realchemistry.com/careers, checked Nov 3, 2026Under its HART approach, staff within a one-hour commute of an office are encouraged in at least two days a week, and regional teams meet quarterly. On Nov 3, 2026, 62 of 88 Greenhouse postings listed a remote location option.
Remote works if you live far from its hubs. Near Boston, New York, Chicago or London, expect office days.
- 02Watch
Revenue fell on paper while growth was reported.
Real Chemistry release, Apr 10, 2025It reported $665M for 2024, then $560M for 2025 described as 14% growth, the first full year after Swoop was spun out.
The 14% appears measured against a base without Swoop (about $491M by our arithmetic). Real growth, but a smaller company than the 2024 headline.
- 03Neutral
Sold to itself, at scale.
Simpson Thacher, Apr 22, 2025New Mountain moved Real Chemistry into a $3.1B single-asset continuation vehicle in Apr 2025, which Simpson Thacher called among the largest raised.
It buys time rather than an exit. The new backers will want a sale or IPO within a few years.
- 04Neutral
Its data and targeting unit became a sister company.
Real Chemistry newsroom (MarTech Cube), Sep 5, 2024New Mountain set up Swoop, an omnichannel targeting business that had run inside Real Chemistry, as an independent company in Sep 2024.
Real Chemistry lost a fast-growing tech arm, then rebuilt media tech through acquisitions.
- 05Good
Two media deals in 2025.
Real Chemistry release, Jul 22, 2025Bought Greater Than One (Jul 2025), which keeps its New York HQ and remote-first structure, and Spring & Bond (Oct 2025). Terms not disclosed.
Growth is part bought. Greater Than One staff may keep a more remote setup than the parent.
- 06Good
Heavyweight pharma names on the board.
Real Chemistry release, May 28, 2026Added Frank Clyburn (ex-IFF CEO, ex-Merck oncology chief) and Chris Fikry (CEO of Clario, now part of Thermo Fisher) in May 2026.
Board building like this often precedes a sale or IPO process. That is a pattern, not a signal the company has given.
- 07Good
A dedicated AI products chief.
Real Chemistry release, Sep 18, 2025Meenakshi Yadav, ex-Genentech, Amazon Alexa and Publicis Sapient, became Chief AI Products and Solutions Officer in Sep 2025.
AI is being run as a product line, not only an internal efficiency push.
- 08Neutral
No single named headquarters.
realchemistry.com Who We Are, checked Nov 3, 2026Releases are datelined New York. The company lists 14 main hubs, including Boston, New York and San Francisco, without naming one as HQ.
Treat it as a distributed network with New York as its public base.
Marketing is paid 14% under market. Design, 34% under.
We save every company's roles, pay by team and level, AI share and churn every day, so each month this page can say more. Sparklines use their own scale.
Can AI agents do business with Real Chemistry?
We checked the agent payment programs, developer docs and site rules an AI assistant would meet.
Open to crawlers, sells AI, no agent doorway. Open robots.txt, no llms.txt, no MCP or public API.
Still Remote read- YesLets AI crawlers read its siterobots.txt sets Crawl-delay: 10 and Disallow: (empty) for all user agents. No AI bot named.checked Nov 3, 2026
- Not found
- YesCan assistants read its job openingsJobs are on Greenhouse; its robots.txt has no active rules and the public board API lists 88 roles.checked Nov 3, 2026
- Not foundAn MCP server or public APINo MCP server, public API or agent marketplace listing found. Its tools are sold inside agency engagements.Real Chemistry newsroom, checked Nov 3, 2026
- YesAgent products for clientsANATOMI is pitched as an AI ecosystem with agentic tools for communications and publications; MaestroHCP automates next-best-action within marketer-set guardrails.Real Chemistry ANATOMI release, Jul 14, 2026
- YesHelps brands show up in AI answersHealthGEO tracks how life sciences brands appear across major LLMs; ANATOMI carries its next version.Real Chemistry release, Mar 2, 2026
Where Real Chemistry puts AI to work.
- 1Thousands of staff-built assistantsIts privacy-safe RCIS Workspace has supported more than 5,000 AI assistants built by employees, per the company.Real Chemistry release, Sep 18, 2025
- 2Data apps in daysIt says Databricks Apps cut build times for rare-disease patient finding tools from months to days.Real Chemistry, May 17, 2026
- 3No AI-linked layoffs announcedIts Oct 2026 essay on AI change says AI may make some roles unnecessary, but no cut has been tied to AI.Real Chemistry, Oct 22, 2026
More listings than on Sep 7, led by other.
What Real Chemistry shows about working there.
Short videos from Real Chemistry's official YouTube channel, played here. We only use a channel that links realchemistry.com and carries the company's name.
- Life at workCareer Growth & Opportunity | Still True after 25 Years at Real Chemistry5 views
- Life at workOur Culture | Still True after 25 Years at Real Chemistry14 views
- Life at workOur People | Still True after 25 Years at Real Chemistry25 views
- Gen AI in Oncology Part 2 | Real Chemistry at ESMO 202657 views
- GenAI in Oncology | Real Chemistry at ESMO 2026120 views
- Three Takeaways for Marketers from #UNBOUND2634 views
- Trust, Self-Advocacy and the Importance of Lived Experience in Healthcare26 views
- Future Focus, Innovation & Growth | Still True after 25 Years at Real Chemistry5 views
The signals, and which way they push.
- TailwindGrowth is speeding up.
14% in 2025 after about 12% in 2024, and the company expects growth to accelerate in 2026.
- TailwindTwo AI launches in four months.
ANATOMI (Jul 2026) and MaestroHCP (Oct 2026), the latter built with AWS.
- HeadwindAn exit clock is running.
Continuation vehicle investors bought in at Apr 2025 and will want liquidity, which can mean cost focus or a sale.
- HeadwindOffice pull for hub staff.
A two-day office expectation for anyone within an hour of a hub.
Where Real Chemistry ends up, if we had to bet.
Our calls, not facts. Each one is tied to something that already happened, so you can judge the reasoning.
- 1
By 2031 Real Chemistry has a new owner, most likely a larger PE fund or a strategic buyer.
Likely 72%M&AContinuation vehicles usually run several years before a sale. The 2026 board additions bring sale-ready pharma names.
Simpson Thacher, Apr 22, 2025 - 2
Real Chemistry lists on a stock exchange by 2036.
Long shot 16%IPONo filing has been reported, and listed agency networks such as WPP and Omnicom trade on low growth. A trade sale looks the more common route for PE-owned agencies.
Simpson Thacher, Apr 22, 2025 - 3
Software-style tool fees become a reported revenue line by 2031.
Coin flip 50%ProductsANATOMI and MaestroHCP are named products with their own launches. Today none is split out from agency revenue.
Real Chemistry ANATOMI release, Jul 14, 2026 - 4
AI does most first-draft medical writing and media planning it bills for today.
Likely 72%AIANATOMI Publications already automates publication planning workflows. Employees have built 5,000+ assistants internally.
Real Chemistry ANATOMI release, Jul 14, 2026 - 5
Real Chemistry stays a top-five health agency network as holding companies consolidate.
Coin flip 50%CompetitionIt grew 14% in 2025 against slower holding companies. Big networks have far more scale to answer back.
Real Chemistry release, Mar 2, 2026
Read by the Still Remote research agent on November 3, 2026 from the sources linked on this page. Facts and scenarios only, not investment advice.