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As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 22, 2021

Registration No. 333-

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM S-1
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

CERTARA, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware

(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)

7372

(Primary Standard Industrial
Classification Code Number)

82-2180925

(I.R.S. Employer
Identification Number)

100 Overlook Center, Suite 101
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
(609) 716-7900

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)

Richard M. Traynor
Senior Vice President and General Counsel
100 Overlook Center, Suite 101
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
(609) 716-7900

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

With copies to:

William B. Brentani
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
2475 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, California 94304
Tel: (650) 251-5000
Fax: (650) 251-5002

Jason M. Licht
Wesley C. Holmes
Latham & Watkins LLP
555 Eleventh Street, NW—Suite 1000
Washington, D.C. 20004
Tel: (202) 637-2200
Fax: (202) 637-2201

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public:
As soon as practicable after the effective date of this registration statement.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933 check the following box. ☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

	Large accelerated filer ☐									Accelerated filer ☐
	Non-accelerated filer ☒									Smaller reporting company ☐ Emerging growth company ☒

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE
TITLE OF EACH CLASS OF SECURITIES TO BE REGISTERED	AMOUNT TO BE REGISTERED(1)	PROPOSED MAXIMUM OFFERING PRICE PER SHARE			PROPOSED MAXIMUM AGGREGATE OFFERING PRICE(1)(2)			AMOUNT OF REGISTRATION FEE
Common stock, $0.01 par value per share	19,550,000		$	30.62		$	598,621,000		$	65,309.55

(1)

Includes 2,550,000 shares that the underwriters have the option to purchase. See “Underwriting.”

(2)

Estimated solely for the purpose of computing the amount of the registration fee. In accordance with Rule 457(c) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, the maximum price per share and maximum aggregate offering price are based on the average of the $31.75 (high) and $29.48 (low) sale price of the registrant’s common stock as reported on The Nasdaq Global Select Market on March 17, 2021, which date is within five business days prior to filing this Registration Statement.

The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

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The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. Neither we nor the selling stockholders may sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities, and neither we nor the selling stockholders are soliciting offers to buy the securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED MARCH 22, 2021

PROSPECTUS

17,000,000 Shares

COMMON STOCK

This is a public offering of shares of common stock of Certara, Inc. The selling stockholders are selling 17,000,000 shares of common stock. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders.

Our common stock is listed and traded on The Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol “CERT.” On March 19, 2021, the last reported sale price of our common stock on Nasdaq was $30.94 per share.

We are an “emerging growth company” as defined under the federal securities laws and, as such, have elected to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements. See “Prospectus Summary—Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company.”

Investing in our common stock involves risks that are described in the “Risk Factors” section beginning on page 19 of this prospectus and the risk factors in the documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus.

PER SHARE

TOTAL

Public offering price

Underwriting discount(1)

Proceeds, before expenses, to the selling stockholders

(1)

See “Underwriting” for a description of the compensation payable to the underwriters.

The selling stockholders have granted the underwriters an option exercisable for 30 days after the date of this prospectus, to purchase, from time to time, in whole or in part, up to an aggregate of 2,550,000 shares from the selling stockholders at the public offering price less underwriting discounts and commissions.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

The shares will be ready for delivery on or about , 2021.

Jefferies

Morgan Stanley

BofA Securities

The date of this prospectus is , 2021.

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						PAGE
	Prospectus Summary					1
	Risk Factors					19
	Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements					24
	Use of Proceeds					27
	Dividend Policy					28
	Capitalization					29
	Management					30
	Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions					36
	Principal and Selling Stockholders					38
	Description of Capital Stock					41
	Shares Eligible for Future Sale					49
	Certain United States Federal Income and Estate Tax Consequences to Non-U.S. Holders					51
	Underwriting					54
	Legal Matters					61
	Experts					61

You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus or any free writing prospectus we may authorize to be delivered or made available to you. We, the selling stockholders and the underwriters have not authorized anyone to provide any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus or any free writing prospectuses prepared by us or on our behalf. We, the selling stockholders and the underwriters take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. This prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus or any applicable free writing prospectus is an offer to sell only the shares offered hereby, but only under circumstances and in jurisdictions where it is lawful to do so. The information contained in this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus or any applicable free writing prospectus is current only as of its date, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus or any applicable free writing prospectus or any sale of the shares. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since such date.

For investors outside the United States: We, the selling stockholders and the underwriters have not done anything that would permit a public offering of the shares of our common stock or possession or distribution of this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus or any applicable free writing prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus or any applicable free writing prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of common stock and the distribution of this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus or any applicable free writing prospectus outside of the United States.

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Trademarks and Service Marks

The Certara design logo, “Certara,” and our other registered or common law trademarks, service marks or trade names contained herein or incorporated by reference are our property. Solely for convenience, we may refer to trademarks, tradenames, and service marks in this prospectus and in the information incorporated by reference without the ®, TM, and SM symbols, but those references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights to these trademarks, tradenames, and service marks. This prospectus contains additional trademarks, tradenames, and service marks of other companies that are the property of their respective owners. We do not intend our use or display of other companies’ trademarks, trade names or service marks to imply relationships with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, these other companies.

Industry and Market Data

Market data used throughout this prospectus and in the information incorporated by reference is based on management’s knowledge of the industry and the good faith estimates of management. All of management’s estimates presented and incorporated by reference herein are based on industry sources, including analyst reports and management’s knowledge. We also relied, to the extent available, upon management’s review of independent industry surveys and publications prepared by a number of sources and other publicly available information. We are responsible for all of the disclosure in this prospectus and the information incorporated by reference herein and while we believe that each of the publications, studies and surveys used throughout this prospectus and the information incorporated by reference are prepared by reputable sources and are generally reliable, we have not independently verified market and industry data from third-party sources. All of the market data used in this prospectus and the information incorporated by reference involves a number of assumptions and limitations and therefore is inherently uncertain and imprecise, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such estimates. Projections, assumptions and estimates of our future performance and the future performance of the industry in which we operate are necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in “Risk Factors” in this prospectus and our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 (our “Annual Report”). These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in our estimates and beliefs and in the estimates prepared by independent parties.

Basis of Presentation

Unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, references in this prospectus to the term:

▪

“2020 Incentive Plan” means the Certara, Inc. 2020 Incentive Plan;

▪

“ACV” means annual customer value in revenue;

▪

“Arsenal” means those certain investment funds of Arsenal Capital Partners and its affiliates;

▪

“CAGR” means compound annual growth rate;

▪

“Credit Agreement” means the credit agreement, dated as of July 15, 2017, among certain of our wholly-owned subsidiaries, as borrowers (collectively, the “Borrowers”), and the lenders thereunder, as amended;

▪

“DGCL” means the Delaware General Corporation Law, as amended;

▪

“EMA” means the European Medicines Agency;

▪

“EQT” means those certain investment funds of EQT AB and its affiliates;

▪

“EQT Investor” means EQT Avatar Parent L.P., an affiliate of EQT;

▪

“Exchange Act” means the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended;

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▪

“FDA” means the U.S. Food and Drug Administration;

▪

“GAAP” means U.S. generally accepted accounting principles;

▪

“in vivo” means trials, studies, or experiments conducted on living organisms, including humans and animals;

▪

“JOBS Act” means the U.S. Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, as amended;

▪

“NMPA” means the National Medical Products Administration of China;

▪

“NOLs” means net operating losses;

▪

“our Compensation Committee” means the Compensation Committee of Certara, Inc.;

▪

“PD” means pharmacodynamic;

▪

“PK” means pharmacokinetic;

▪

“PMDA” means the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency of Japan;

▪

“QSP” means quantitative systems pharmacology;

▪

“QSTS” means quantitative systems toxicology and safety;

▪

“R&D” means research and development;

▪

“Securities Act” means the Securities Act of 1933, as amended;

▪

“SaaS” means software as a service;

▪

“SEC” means the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission;

▪

“SOX” means the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended;

▪

“TAM” means our total addressable market; and

▪

“underwriters” means the firms listed on the cover page of this prospectus.

For ease of reference, we have repeated definitions for certain of these terms in other portions of the body of this prospectus. All such definitions conform to the definitions set forth above.

Where You Can Find Additional Information

We have filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-1 under the Securities Act with respect to the common stock offered by this prospectus. This prospectus is a part of the registration statement and does not contain all of the information set forth in the registration statement and its exhibits and schedules, portions of which have been omitted as permitted by the rules and regulations of the SEC. For further information about us and our common stock, you should refer to the registration statement and its exhibits and schedules.

We file reports and other information with the SEC. Our SEC filings are available to the public at the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov as well as the Certara Investor Relations website at https://ir.certara.com/; however, information on, or accessible through, our website is not part of this prospectus.

Incorporation by Reference

The rules of the SEC allow us to incorporate by reference information we file with the SEC. This means that we are disclosing important information to you by referring to other documents. The information incorporated by reference is considered to be part of this prospectus. To the extent there are inconsistencies between the information contained in this prospectus and the information contained in the documents filed with the SEC prior to the date of this prospectus and incorporated by reference, the information in this prospectus shall be

iii

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deemed to supersede the information in such incorporated documents. We incorporate by reference the documents listed below (other than any portions thereof, which under the Exchange Act, and applicable SEC rules, are not deemed “filed” under the Exchange Act):

▪

our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.

If we have incorporated by reference any statement or information in this prospectus and we subsequently modify that statement or information with information contained in this prospectus, the statement or information previously incorporated in this prospectus is also modified or superseded in the same manner.

We will provide without charge to each person to whom a copy of this prospectus has been delivered, a copy of any and all of these filings. You may request a copy of these filings by writing to us at:

Investor Relations
100 Overlook Center, Suite 101
Princeton, NJ 08540
e-mail: ir@certara.com

Exhibits to any documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus will not be sent, however, unless those exhibits have been specifically referenced in this prospectus.

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PROSPECTUS SUMMARY

This prospectus summary highlights selected information contained or incorporated by reference in this prospectus and may not contain all of the information that you should consider in making your investment decision. Before investing in our common stock, you should carefully read the entire prospectus, including the information incorporated by reference. For a more complete understanding of our company and this offering and before making any investment decision, you should read this entire prospectus and the information incorporated by reference, including the “Risk Factors” section of this prospectus and the “Risk Factors” section in our Annual Report.

Our Company

We accelerate medicines to patients using biosimulation software and technology to transform traditional drug discovery and development.

Biosimulation is a powerful technology used to conduct virtual trials using virtual patients to better understand how drugs behave in different individuals. Biopharmaceutical companies use our proprietary biosimulation software throughout drug discovery and development to inform critical decisions that not only save significant time and money but also advance drug safety and efficacy, improving millions of lives each year.

As a global leader in biosimulation based on 2020 revenue, we provide an integrated, end-to-end platform used by more than 1,650 biopharmaceutical companies and academic institutions across 61 countries, including all of the top 35 biopharmaceutical companies by R&D spend in 2019. Since 2014, customers who use our biosimulation software and technology-enabled services have received over 90% of all new drug approvals by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”). Moreover, 17 global regulatory authorities license our biosimulation software to independently analyze, verify, and review regulatory submissions, including the FDA, Europe’s European Medicines Agency (“EMA”), Health Canada, Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (“PMDA”), and China’s National Medical Products Administration (“NMPA”). Demand for our offerings continues to expand rapidly.

While traditional drug development has led to meaningful therapies, such as vaccines and chemotherapy, many patients still wait for life-saving medicines, which can take more than 10 years and $2 billion to bring to market. Change is necessary to continue delivering remarkable gains in human health at an accelerated pace. We, and many others in the biopharmaceutical industry, believe that biosimulation enables this change.

We build our biosimulation technology on first principles of biology, chemistry, and pharmacology with proprietary mathematical algorithms that model how medicines and diseases behave in the body. For over two decades, we have honed and validated our biosimulation technology with an abundance of data from scientific literature, lab research, and preclinical and clinical studies. In turn, our customers use biosimulation to conduct virtual trials to answer critical questions, such as: What will be the human response to a drug based on preclinical data? How will other drugs interfere with this new drug? What is a safe and efficacious dose for children, the elderly, or patients with pre-existing conditions? Virtual trials may be used to optimize dosing on populations that are otherwise difficult to study for ethical or logistical reasons, such as infants, pregnant women, the elderly, and cancer patients.

The benefits of biosimulation are significant. One of our customers, a top ten global biopharmaceutical company by R&D spend, estimated that they saved more than half a billion dollars over three years using biosimulation to inform key decisions. Biosimulation can reduce the size of and cost of human trials, the most expensive and time-consuming part of drug development, and in some cases, eliminate certain human trials completely. An analysis published on Applied Clinical Trials Online, to which we contributed, estimated that $1 billion was saved in clinical trial costs using biosimulation for a cancer drug due to consistently shorter completion times in the later phase clinical trials.

We develop and apply our biosimulation technology throughout drug discovery and development with what we believe to be the largest and best team of scientists with deep expertise in biosimulation. Our scientists are recognized key opinion leaders who are at the forefront of the science and technology underpinning the rapidly emerging biosimulation field. We have collaborated on more than 5,000 customer projects in the past

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decade in therapeutic areas ranging from cancer and hematology to diabetes and hundreds of rare diseases. Over the past year, we have worked on more than 30 programs on vaccines and therapeutics to combat
COVID-19.

Biosimulation results need to be incorporated into regulatory documents for compelling submissions. Accordingly, we provide regulatory science solutions and integrate them with biosimulation, so that our customers can navigate the complex and evolving regulatory landscape and maximize their chances of approval. Our differentiated regulatory services are powered by submissions management software and natural language processing for scalability and speed, allowing us to deliver more than 200 regulatory submissions over the past four years. Our team of regulatory professionals has extensive experience applying industry guidelines and global regulatory requirements.

The final hurdle to delivering medicines to patients is market access, defined as strategies, processes, and activities to ensure that therapies are available to patients at the right price. We believe that biosimulation and market access will continue to be increasingly intertwined as healthcare systems and countries move toward outcomes-based pricing. We have recently expanded into technology-enabled market access solutions, which help our customers understand the real-world impact of therapies and dosing regimens earlier in the process and effectively communicate this to payors and health authorities. Our solutions are underpinned by technologies such as Bayesian statistical software and SaaS-based value communication tools.

We have a proven track record of steady growth, driven by higher adoption of biosimulation, expansion of our technology portfolio, strategic acquisitions, and cross-selling of biosimulation, regulatory science, and market access solutions across our end-to-end platform:

▪

From 2019 to 2020, our revenue increased by 17% from $208.5 million to $243.5 million.

▪

The number of customers with Annual Customer Value (“ACV”) of $100,000 or more in revenue increased from 228 in 2019 to 261 in 2020.

▪

The number of customers with ACV of $1,000,000 or more in revenue increased from 44 in 2019 to 53 in 2020.

We believe that biosimulation is at an inflection point, driven by increasing global regulatory adoption and advancements in technology. We believe we are well-positioned to capture the significant market opportunity ahead of us. Our growth strategy is to build out the depth and breadth of our scalable, end-to-end biopharmaceutical platform to advance all stages of the continuum, from discovery and development to regulatory submission and market access. We continue to innovate and introduce new functionality and uses of biosimulation and technology-enabled solutions. We increasingly integrate the science and data we obtain across this end-to-end platform to inform critical decisions. We further reduce the cost and time of human trials to materially accelerate the speed of development and availability of therapies to patients worldwide. As exciting, new research areas arise, we attract and hire specialized talent and acquire businesses to expand our offerings to address these market opportunities.

With continued innovation in and adoption of our biosimulation software and technology-enabled services, we believe more biopharmaceutical companies worldwide will leverage more of our end-to-end platform to reduce cost, accelerate speed to market, and ensure safety and efficacy of medicines for all patients.

Our Markets

We believe our addressable market within the biopharmaceutical industry is large and rapidly expanding. The current total addressable market (“TAM”) for our solutions represents an estimated $11.6 billion today and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (“CAGR”) of approximately 12% to 15% annually over the next five years. Our TAM estimate includes the biosimulation market estimated at $2.4 billion, which is estimated to grow at 15% CAGR over such period according to Grand View Research; the regulatory science market estimated at $7.9 billion, which is estimated to grow at 12% CAGR over such period according to Grand View Research; and the market access market estimated at $1.3 billion, which is estimated to grow at 12% CAGR over such period according to SpendEdge. With increasing adoption of technology across all stages of drug discovery and development, we believe our end-to-end platform and growth strategies position us to further penetrate the rapidly growing technology-enabled biopharmaceutical R&D market of the future.

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Traditional drug discovery and development is costly and prone to failure. The biopharmaceutical industry was estimated to have spent a total of approximately $188 billion in 2020 on R&D. It takes more than 10 years to bring a drug to market, and the cost has grown significantly in the past decade from $1.2 billion in 2010 to $2.0 billion in 2019. The probability of success of compounds entering Phase I trials is only 7%. With only 53% of Phase III drugs reaching the market, late-stage failures are common and especially painful as sponsors have already incurred significant cost and time. At the same time, scientific advances are driving increased complexity as the R&D pipeline shifts from small molecules to biologics and cell and gene therapies.

With greater investment dollars being spent and increasing competition in the race to develop novel medicines, the speed and efficiency with which drugs are developed and brought to market have never been more critical. As a result, the demand for and willingness to adopt innovative approaches to discovery, development, and commercialization are rapidly increasing. Continued development and innovation in software and technology such as biosimulation, virtual trials, and real-world evidence tools are helping biopharmaceutical companies increase efficiency and decrease costs. This is further supported by regulatory agencies that have increasingly issued guidance on the adoption of many of these innovations. As technology and analytics become increasingly powerful and the application of new solutions is validated, we anticipate this will drive further demand for these innovations. We believe we are still in the early stages of a long-term trend that will continue to advance traditional drug discovery and development into a technology-enabled era of advanced modeling and analytics.

In addition, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe that the demand for innovative technology solutions in drug discovery and development is accelerating. Disruption of clinical trials during the pandemic has highlighted some of the limitations of human trials and is expected to drive increased utilization of technology during and after the pandemic. Sponsors, regulators, and their partners have adopted a number of technology-driven solutions and procedures, which we believe they will continue to utilize and benefit from in the post-COVID environment. Moving forward, we believe there will be an increase in adoption of software and technology-enabled solutions as a means to proactively mitigate the future risks of disruptions to clinical trials. We believe that these trends will only serve to accelerate our market opportunity.

Role of Our Platform across the Stages of Drug Discovery and Development

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Our core markets today include:

▪

Biosimulation: Biosimulation is the mathematical modeling of biological processes and systems to simulate how a drug affects the body, how the body affects the drug, how potential doses will affect different patient groups, and how patients will respond under various clinical scenarios. Biosimulation informs every stage of the drug discovery and development process and brings value through:

▪

Identifying potential winners and losers at an earlier stage and allowing programs to “fail faster;”

▪

Streamlining preclinical and clinical studies or eliminating certain ones altogether;

▪

Optimizing dosing for different populations for enhanced safety and efficacy; and

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▪

Increasing probability of success and return on R&D, amongst others.

▪

Regulatory Science: Regulatory science is the development and application of scientific methods, tools, and approaches to support regulatory and other policy objectives. Expert management of these processes is critical to drugs receiving regulatory approval and ultimately reaching patients and generating sales. Providers of regulatory technology and expertise drive significant value for biopharmaceutical companies through:

▪

Utilizing best-in-class technology to reduce time-intensive regulatory writing activities and the need for regulatory writing staff;

▪

Managing submission timelines and other requirements of global regulatory agencies;

▪

Generating clear, accurate applications and submissions; and

▪

Developing comprehensive global regulatory strategies, amongst others.

▪

Market Access: To achieve commercial access, sponsors must assess, optimize and persuasively communicate the value of a new therapy, both therapeutic and economic, that stakeholders such as payors and health care providers will accept and act on. Market access services, including real-world evidence and health economics outcomes research, generate value by:

▪

Creating cost and comparative effectiveness models to support pricing and payor reimbursement;

▪

Analyzing payor needs and using economic models to develop contracting strategies that optimize value; and

▪

Collecting and analyzing real-world data for use in market and payor communications, amongst others.

We believe that our end-to-end platform is well-positioned to continue benefiting from market trends. In addition to continued growth in our core markets, we expect to capture a broader share of overall biopharmaceutical R&D spend as we continue to innovate and add new solutions to our end-to-end platform.

Our Competitive Strengths

We compete by offering a broad and deep combination of industry-standard biosimulation software and technology-enabled services across all stages of the continuum, from discovery and development to regulatory approval and market access. We have cultivated the following competitive strengths for more than two decades:

Our Proprietary, Scalable Biosimulation Software

Our proprietary, scalable biosimulation software, built on first principles and including more than 9.3 million lines of code, integrates biosimulation models, scientific knowledge, and data, which we believe would require years of effort, immense resources, and scarce expertise to duplicate. Our versatile biosimulation software is deployed to public and private cloud networks, on-premises, and data centers. Scientists can run multiple simulation projects on a cloud compute platform or internal clusters. We protect our proprietary technology through intellectual property rights, including copyrights, patents, trade secrets, know-how, and trademarks.

Our Integrated End-to-End Platform

We have developed a differentiated, integrated end-to-end platform of software and technology-enabled services, powered by proprietary technology and unique talent, spanning discovery through market access. Our customers, facing declining R&D productivity and an increasingly complex regulatory and market access environment, seek trusted partners to accelerate their R&D programs and achieve regulatory and commercial success. Our integrated set of solutions uniquely positions us to be their first-choice partner. More than ninety percent of our top 50 customers by revenue use both our biosimulation solutions and regulatory and market access offerings.

Our Innovation Framework

We are at the forefront of innovation in biosimulation. Beyond our sustained R&D investment ($26.7 million or 11% of revenues in 2020), our innovation framework advances both incremental and breakthrough innovations in biosimulation to transform traditional drug discovery and development.

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▪

Customer-Centricity: Through our consortium model and approximately 1,000 biosimulation projects and workshops annually, we derive significant insights that inform the development of our biosimulation software. These insights help us to anticipate and align our technology roadmap with our customers’ needs and priorities.

▪

Regulatory Alignment: As we continuously engage with regulators through our customers’ programs, training workshops, and attendance at FDA and other regulator meetings, we develop an in-depth understanding of how to align our biosimulation software and services to meet evolving regulatory expectations and requirements.

▪

Scalable Data Collection and Curation: Using artificial intelligence and our scientific team, we have curated data from more than 8,500 clinical studies and 18,000 peer-reviewed manuscripts. We have created 25 different virtual patient populations, approximately 100 compound drug files, more than 45 clinical outcomes databases, and advanced mathematical models for ten organs.

▪

Scientific Research: We work with our customers, a scientific advisory board of thought leaders, and more than 120 academic institutions to innovate bottom-up, mechanistic models of drug, disease, and human biology. Each mathematical equation or parameter estimation is based on up-to-date scientific knowledge and data. We use scientific literature, lab data, and our customers’ preclinical and clinical studies to refine, verify, and validate these models to ensure that they meet rigorous scientific and quality standards.

Our Trusted, Long-Term Customer and Regulatory Partnerships

We work continuously and closely with our customers to provide software and technology-enabled services from drug discovery and development to regulatory science and market access, applying biosimulation throughout the continuum to maximize R&D productivity and increase the probability of success. We have substantial repeat business and long-term partnerships. Our top 30 customers by revenue in 2020 have been with us for more than ten years on average. We are often favored by our customers for follow-on projects throughout a drug’s lifecycle, leveraging our early engagements in preclinical or Phase I to provide continuous support in later phases such as dose optimization for a Phase III study or a new drug application regulatory filing.

▪

Consortium Model with Biopharmaceutical Companies: Our Simcyp Platform benefits from a unique business and customer collaboration model that we term a “consortium.” Established more than 20 years ago, our consortium model provides for intense and detailed customer input into software enhancements. This R&D feedback loop, driven by customer needs, results in ongoing advancement and incorporation of more scientific data that increases the value of our Simcyp Platform over time. Our consortium members, consisting of scientists from leading global biopharmaceutical companies, sign multi-year contracts and actively participate in consortium meetings, so that we continuously extend our scientific and commercial leadership.

▪

Long-Standing Regulatory Partnerships: Seventeen regulatory agencies license our biosimulation software. In addition, our scientists are regularly invited by U.S., European, and Japanese regulatory agencies to teach and participate in their workshops. We have received four grants and a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement from the FDA as well as grants from six European organizations, including the EU Commission, to develop biosimulation models and conduct biosimulation analyses.

▪

Academic Centers of Excellence: We work closely with the global academic community on research, publications, and training of the next generation of biopharmaceutical scientists. We have established nine Centers of Excellence worldwide, which use our biosimulation software in their courses and scientific research. Additionally, nearly 400 academic institutions worldwide license our biosimulation software.

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Certara University: We recognize that education in the theory and practice of biosimulation is pivotal to adoption and achieving the benefits of biosimulation. Certara University provides in-person and online training on biosimulation and the use of our biosimulation software to more than 4,500 scientists in the past three years.

The Deep Expertise of Our People and Our Culture of Innovation

We are led by a diverse, global, and talented team of scientists, software engineers, and subject matter experts who not only advance our technology but also seek to understand and tackle our customers’ greatest

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challenges. Over the last decade, we have worked on more than 5,000 customer projects, leading to extensive experience, which our customers highly value. As of December 31, 2020, approximately 300 of our employees held PhD, PharmD, or MD degrees. Our team of software engineers and technologists excels at applying computer science, engineering, and scientific and mathematical principles in designing and developing complex software with consistent execution. World-leading experts in biosimulation, drug discovery and development, software development, regulatory science, and market access work and thrive at Certara.

Our global executive management team brings together extensive experience in science, technology, and business. Sharing core values of dedication, quality, and respect, the executive management team is focused on fostering our passion for science and growing our culture of innovation, excellence, collaboration, and customer-centricity as well as delivering exceptional performance.

Our Growth Strategy

Our growth strategy is to build upon our scalable, end-to-end platform. We continue to innovate in biosimulation, engage with regulatory agencies, and land and expand our customer partnerships. We remain focused on reducing the cost, time, and probability of failure of clinical trials for our customers, so that they can materially accelerate the availability of future therapies that are needed by patients worldwide. As exciting, new research areas arise, such as cell and gene therapy, we attract and hire specialized talent and acquire businesses to expand our offerings accordingly.

Advance Our Technology

The science, technology, and data behind biosimulation continue to advance rapidly, and our top investment priority is to develop additional functionality and uses for biosimulation to improve patient outcomes. We release new software, additional features, and upgrades on a frequent and regular basis. In the past two years, we have introduced more than 10 new software applications and upgrades, including D360 Biologics Scientific Informatics, Simcyp Immuno-oncology Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (“QSP”), and COVID-19 Quantitative Systems Pharmacology.

We are investing in three major areas to elevate our technology:

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Spearheading the Frontier of QSP and Toxicology, an emerging approach with enormous potential for industry-wide transformation to optimize decisions in both drug discovery and development. In addition to QSP for immunogenicity, immuno-oncology, and COVID-19, we are ramping up our QSP platform for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and for quantitative systems toxicology and safety (“QSTS”). Neuroscience is expected to have the most growth in QSP modeling over the next several years, followed by oncology and autoimmune disorders. All of our mechanistic simulators communicate seamlessly with each other, which is a major advantage for complex drug discovery and development programs;

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Continuing to Develop Cloud-Based Solutions, such as Certara Integral Data Repository, CODEx Clinical Outcomes Databases, and BaseCase Value Communication Software, which enhance computing scalability, significantly reduce maintenance time and cost, and promote access, collaboration and mobility. This also allows us to easily deliver new features and explore new business models; and

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Architecting an Ecosystem of Interconnected Software Applications to facilitate seamless workflows and sharing of data across the drug discovery and development continuum for efficiency and speed.

Grow Within Our Existing Customers

As we continue to expand our portfolio of offerings, we integrate our solutions and sell more across our end-to-end platform. Our scientists and regulatory and market access experts, business developers, marketing professionals, and business leaders work together to ensure a high-quality customer experience and nurture long-term partnerships. As a result, our customer relationships grow steadily over time, driven by higher adoption of biosimulation with additional user licenses and more modules.

We also cross-sell our software and technology-enabled services throughout our end-to-end platform. Many of our customers who use biosimulation also rely on us for regulatory strategy, writing, and submissions support, including the majority of our top 50 customers. The number of customers with annual customer value of

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$100,000 or more in revenue increased from 228 in 2019 to 261 in 2020, a 14% increase. The success of our land and expand approach is further demonstrated by our high re-occurring revenue streams with an aggregate renewal rate of 90% for our software customers from 2019 to 2020 and net revenue repeat rate (defined as the level of technology-enabled services revenue generated from our existing customers from period to period, accounting for expansion and churn) of 116% for our technology-enabled services customers from 2019 to 2020.

Expand Our Customer Base Globally

We are growing our footprint globally to match that of the biopharmaceutical industry. There are more than 4,800 biopharmaceutical companies worldwide with active R&D pipelines, up from nearly 2,400 in 2011, according to Informa’s Pharma R&D Annual Review 2020. Informa also estimates that the R&D pipeline encompasses approximately 18,000 drug programs in 2020. As drug discovery and development in Asia Pacific grows, we are investing heavily to expand our presence in the region to work with these customers where they are, just as we already have in North America, Europe and Japan. We continue to build our sales and marketing capabilities and capacity to expand our global reach. In October 2020, we opened an office in Shanghai, China.

Scale Through Acquisitions

Biosimulation is an exciting technology with many promising, future developments, and we believe there are numerous opportunities to pursue strategic acquisitions to accelerate our development roadmap. We have a proven record of successfully acquiring and integrating software and services companies. To date, we have acquired 12 companies of which nine included software or technology such as Simcyp, the core of our mechanistic biosimulation platform, and Xenologiq, which jumpstarted our biosimulation initiative using QSP. As we build out the depth and breadth of our biosimulation platform, we continually seek and assess a range of highly focused opportunities in our immediately addressable market and in related adjacent markets, whether through acquisitions, licenses, or partnerships.

Inspire Our People

Our people, 900 strong, are the key to our success. The diversity and depth of expertise, experience, and backgrounds in our vibrant community bring richness of ideas, problem-solving capabilities, and mutual respect. We are dedicated to attracting, retaining, and growing leading scientists and experts who are passionate about developing medicines that matter. We strive to encourage intellectual curiosity and offer a myriad of professional development opportunities. We continue to invest in our people to help them thrive and solidify our position as an employer of choice in our industry.

The Certara End-to-End Platform

We provide both software and technology-enabled services to enable customers to realize the full benefits of biosimulation in drug discovery, preclinical and clinical research, regulatory submission, and market access. Our software is primarily subscription-based with licenses ranging from one to three years.

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Certara End-to-end Platform

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Software

Our software, utilized by more than 20,000 licensed users in biosimulation and 28,000 more in regulatory and market access, addresses six main applications: 1) mechanistic biosimulation; 2) empirical pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic biosimulation; 3) scientific informatics; 4) clinical outcomes databases for biosimulation; 5) authoring and management of regulatory submissions; and 6) market access communication. We deploy our software to customers on public and private cloud networks, on-premises, and in data centers.

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Mechanistic Biosimulation Platform (Simcyp): Mechanistic biosimulation predicts both how a drug is handled within the body (known as “pharmacokinetics” or “PK”) and drug effect (known as “pharmacodynamics” or “PD”), without the need for actual in vivo human or animal studies. Seventeen of the top 20 biopharmaceutical companies by R&D spend in 2019 licensed Simcyp. Simcyp includes three main modules:

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Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (“PBPK”) modeling and simulation: Our industry-standard Simcyp PBPK Simulator includes a whole-body model to run virtual “what if?” scenarios without human clinical studies. One benefit is understanding how dosing should be adjusted for special populations such as children or the elderly. A second is to identify potential drug-drug interactions so they can be included on drug labels to make the product safer. Simcyp is used by 11 regulatory agencies to evaluate submissions.

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Quantitative systems pharmacology: A rapidly growing field in biosimulation, QSP combines computational modeling and vast amounts of ‘omics (e.g., genomics, proteomics, metabolomics) data to predict clinical efficacy outcomes for novel targets, drug modalities, and combination therapies. By using QSP to understand the physiological mechanisms driving efficacy, customers can terminate unpromising discovery programs earlier, and promote stronger candidates to clinical testing, thus reducing costly late-stage failures. Once marketed, the same physiological knowledge can differentiate launch messaging, helping the drug to stand out from the competition.

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Quantitative systems toxicology and safety: QSTS integrates toxicology with quantitative analysis of large networks of molecular and functional biological changes to identify drug toxicity and adverse drug reactions earlier.

Our Simcyp Platform has generated results that inform approximately 250 label claims for more than 75 drugs. Had customers attempted to acquire the same information through conventional human trials, we believe they would have faced millions in additional costs and significant launch delays, given that clinical trials are estimated to take 1 to 2.5 years on average and cost many millions of dollars, according to Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

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Empirical PK/PD Biosimulation Platform (Phoenix): Once our customers have empirical data from their actual trials assessing drug dissolution, blood concentration, and effect, they must interpret the data and make interpolations and extrapolations to inform dosing, handling of drug-drug interactions, and

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formulation decisions for subsequent trials and for patient use after launch. Phoenix includes multiple modules for the full empirical biosimulation workflow including conventional and biosimulation-driven interpretation (WinNonlin, NLME, and IVIVC), and related workflow modules for validated data handling, model management, and regulatory reporting (PK Submit, Certara Integral, Validation Suites). Customers benefit by gaining a validated, streamlined workflow for reporting their clinical pharmacology information to the FDA and other agencies. Furthermore, customers can be confident they are using the same tools used by regulators to evaluate their products.

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Scientific Informatics Platform (D360): D360 provides customers with self-service access and analytics to manage their small molecule and biologics discovery projects. The platform includes chemical structure search capabilities for structure-activity relationship analysis, molecular design tools and visualization solutions. The product connects seamlessly with biology and chemistry data systems from third-party companies, without extensive IT setup and maintenance. We estimate that more than 6,000 discovery research scientists worldwide use D360.

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Clinical Outcomes Databases for Biosimulation (CODEx): Our customers license our 45+ proprietary CODEx databases in a range of disease areas for meta-analysis of a new drug’s safety and efficacy in relation to competitive products. The databases cover more than 8,500 clinical trials and observational studies and are accessible via an online portal with analytical and visualization tools. In 2020, we introduced a new CODEx database for COVID-19.

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Authoring and Management of Regulatory Submissions Platform (GlobalSubmit): Our customers license our advanced, cloud-based electronic common technical document (“eCTD”) software for publishing, review, validation, and electronic filing of regulatory submissions.

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Market Access Communication Platform (BaseCase): We license a cloud-based SaaS platform for drag-and-drop visualization of biosimulation results and other complex data. Customers use our software to communicate the value of a new therapy to payors and providers to gain formulary acceptance and reimbursement.

Technology-Enabled Services

Our technology-enabled, biosimulation services help customers who do not have staff capability or availability to gain the benefits of biosimulation. We also provide related, technology-enabled services to guide our customers’ new drugs through the regulatory submission process and into the market. Our technology-enabled services include integrated drug development services include mechanistic biosimulation, empirical biosimulation, drug development and regulatory writing and medical communications, regulatory operations, and market access. Regulatory agencies promote and endorse the use of biosimulation in drug development as “model informed drug discovery and development,” which integrates our software and technology-enabled services to inform key decisions during drug discovery, development, approval, and subsequent market access.

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Mechanistic Biosimulation: We utilize our Simcyp Platform for predicting PK to determine first-in-human dose selection, design more efficient and effective clinical studies, evaluate new drug formulations, and predict drug-drug interactions. We use our QSP and QSTS software to advise customers on target selection and ranking and strategies for avoiding toxicities.

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Empirical Biosimulation: We use our Phoenix Platform and other tools to provide a wide range of quantitative biosimulation approaches such as non-compartmental analysis, PK/PD modeling, and population PK/PD analyses.

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Drug Development and Regulatory Strategy: We develop and deliver drug development and regulatory plans and provide high-level regulatory input to customer projects, incorporating biosimulation and supporting decision making through critical development and investment stage gates.

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Clinical Pharmacology: We provide early-phase development plans and study designs across the development life cycle, often incorporating biosimulation. We use clinical pharmacology gap analysis and modeling to anticipate and manage development risks.

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Model-Based Meta-Analysis: We utilize curated clinical trial data from our CODEx clinical outcomes database platform together with model-based meta-analysis to assess a new drug’s safety and efficacy in relation to competitive products.

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Regulatory Writing and Medical Communications: We support submissions from early-stage investigational new drugs to late-stage new drug applications, biologics license applications, and market authorization

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applications, by writing regulatory documents such as clinical study protocols/reports, safety submissions, and other summary documents for submission to the FDA and global regulatory authorities. We manage technical editing including transparency and disclosure services to ensure that our customers’ regulatory documents are “filing-ready.” Our team also offers advanced publication planning and writing support for scientific and medical publications. We deploy natural language processing software and other technology to enable efficient and scalable document creation.

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Regulatory Operations: We manage the submission of regulatory documents using our GlobalSubmit platform. Our submission management services include submission leadership, program management and planning, due diligence and readiness preparation, submission compilation, and eCTD publishing. We support applications to all major health agencies, including the FDA, Europe’s EMA, Health Canada, Japan’s PMDA, and China’s NMPA.

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Market Access: We assist customers in demonstrating the value of new drugs and health technologies to payors and other stakeholders to support their efforts in securing reimbursement and access in global markets. These services include conducting real-world evidence and health economics outcomes research, delivering value and access consultancy solutions, creating cost and comparative effectiveness models to support pricing and payor reimbursement, and collecting and analyzing real world data for use in market and payor communications. We use our proprietary technology called the Health Outcomes Performance Estimator (HOPE), based on a Bayesian engine, that translates clinical trial findings and population health knowledge into expected real-world impact.

Summary of Risk Factors

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider these risks before investing in our common stock, including the risks related to our business and industry described under “Risk Factors” elsewhere in this prospectus and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. These risks include, among others, the following key risks:

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our ability to compete within our market;

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any deceleration in, or resistance to, the acceptance of model-informed biopharmaceutical discovery;

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changes or delays in government regulation relating to the biopharmaceutical industry;

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increasing competition, regulation and other cost pressures within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries;

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trends in R&D spending, the use of third parties by biopharmaceutical companies and a shift toward more R&D occurring at smaller biotechnology companies;

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consolidation within the biopharmaceutical industry;

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reduction in the use of our products by academic institutions;

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pricing pressures due to increased customer utilization of our products;

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our ability to successfully enter new markets, increase our customer base and expand our relationships with existing customers;

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the occurrence of natural disasters and epidemic diseases, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic;

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any delays or defects in our release of new or enhanced software or other biosimulation tools;

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failure of our existing customers to renew their software licenses or any delays or terminations of contracts or reductions in scope of work by our existing customers;

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our ability to accurately estimate costs associated with our fixed-fee contracts;

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our ability to retain key personnel or recruit additional qualified personnel;

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risks related to our contracts with government customers, including the ability of third parties to challenge our receipt of such contracts;

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our ability to sustain recent growth rates;

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any future acquisitions and our ability to successfully integrate such acquisitions;

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the accuracy of our addressable market estimates;

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the length and unpredictability of our software and service sales cycles;

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our ability to successfully operate a global business;

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our ability to comply with applicable anti-corruption, trade compliance and economic sanctions laws and regulations;

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risks related to litigation against us;

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the adequacy of our insurance coverage and our ability to obtain adequate insurance coverage in the future;

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our ability to perform our services in accordance with contractual requirements, regulatory standards and ethical considerations;

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the loss of more than one of our major customers;

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our future capital needs;

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the ability or inability of our bookings to accurately predict our future revenue and our ability to realize the anticipated revenue reflected in our backlog;

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any disruption in the operations of the third-party providers who host our software solutions or any limitations on their capacity or interference with our use;

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our ability to reliably meet our data storage and management requirements, or the experience of any failures or interruptions in the delivery of our services over the internet;

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our ability to comply with the terms of any licenses governing our use of third-party open source software utilized in our software solutions;

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any breach of our security measures or unauthorized access to customer data;

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our ability to comply with applicable privacy and data security laws;

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our ability to adequately enforce or defend our ownership and use of our intellectual property and other proprietary rights;

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any allegations that we are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating a third party’s intellectual property rights;

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our ability to meet the obligations under our current or future indebtedness as they become due and have sufficient capital to operate our business and react to changes in the economy or industry;

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any limitations on our ability to pursue our business strategies due to restrictions under our current or future indebtedness or inability to comply with any restrictions under such indebtedness;

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any impairment of goodwill or other intangible assets;

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our ability to use our NOLs and R&D tax credit carryforwards to offset future taxable income;

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the accuracy of our estimates and judgments relating to our critical accounting policies and any changes in financial reporting standards or interpretations;

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any inability to design, implement and maintain effective internal controls when required by law;

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the costs and management time associated with operating as a publicly traded company; and

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the other factors discussed under “Risk Factors” in this prospectus and our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.

Our Sponsor

EQT is a differentiated global investment organization with more than €62 billion in raised capital and around €40 billion in assets under management across 19 active funds. EQT funds have portfolio companies in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America with total sales of more than €27 billion and approximately 159,000 employees. EQT works with portfolio companies to achieve sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership. Over the last 20 years, EQT has completed more than 27 acquisitions in the healthcare sector, including current investments in Aldevron, Waystar, Galderma and WS Audiology and former investments in Press Ganey, CaridianBCT, BSN Medical and Clinical Innovations.

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In August 2017, investment funds affiliated with EQT, together with certain other institutional and other investors, acquired a majority of the indirect equity interests in our Company from certain affiliates of Arsenal Capital Partners and other existing equityholders. After completion of this offering, such EQT investment funds and their affiliates will own, directly or indirectly, approximately 40.6% of our outstanding common stock, or approximately 39.3% if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares. We are party to a stockholders agreement with EQT, Arsenal and certain other stockholders that provides (i) affiliates of EQT with the right to nominate to our board of directors a number of nominees equal to (x) the total number of directors comprising our board of directors at such time, multiplied by (y) the percentage of our outstanding common stock held from time to time by such affiliates of EQT and (ii) affiliates of Arsenal with the right to nominate to our board of directors one nominee for so long as such affiliates collectively own at least 5% of our outstanding common stock. See “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Stockholders Agreement” for additional information.

Corporate Information

Certara, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware on June 27, 2017. Our principal executive offices are located at 100 Overlook Center, Suite 101, Princeton, New Jersey 08540. Our telephone number is (609) 716-7900. Our website address is www.certara.com. Information contained in, or that can be accessed through, our website does not constitute part of this prospectus, and inclusion of our website address in this prospectus and the information incorporated by reference is intended to be an inactive textual reference only.

Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company

We qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act. For so long as we remain an emerging growth company, we are permitted and currently intend to rely on the following provisions of the JOBS Act that contain exceptions from disclosure and other requirements that otherwise are applicable to companies that conduct initial public offerings and file periodic reports with the SEC. These provisions include, but are not limited to:

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being permitted to present only two years of audited financial statements in this prospectus and only two years of related “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our periodic reports and registration statements, including this prospectus;

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not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the SOX;

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reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports, proxy statements and registration statements, including in this prospectus; and

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exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.

We will remain an emerging growth company until:

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the first to occur of the last day of the fiscal year (i) that follows the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (ii) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion or (iii) in which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer,” as defined in the Exchange Act; or

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if it occurs before any of the foregoing dates, the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt over a three-year period.

We have elected to take advantage of certain of the reduced disclosure obligations in this prospectus and may elect to take advantage of other reduced reporting requirements in our future filings with the SEC. As a result, the information that we provide to our stockholders may be different than what you might receive from other public reporting companies in which you hold equity interests.

We have elected to avail ourselves of the provision of the JOBS Act that permits emerging growth companies to take advantage of an extended transition period to comply with new or revised accounting standards until those standards apply to private companies. As a result, we will not be subject to new or revised accounting standards at the same time as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

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For additional information, see the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to this Offering and Ownership of Our Common Stock—We are an “emerging growth company” and the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies may make our common stock less attractive to investors.”

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THE OFFERING

Common stock offered by the selling stockholders

17,000,000 shares.

Common stock to be outstanding immediately after this offering

152,979,479 shares.

Option to purchase additional shares

The selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,550,000 shares of common stock from the selling stockholders at the public offering price, less the underwriting discounts and commissions.

Use of proceeds

We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of our common stock by the selling stockholders.

Risk factors

See “Risk Factors” and the other information included in this prospectus and incorporated by reference for a discussion of the factors you should consider carefully before deciding to invest in our common stock.

Dividend policy

We currently do not intend to declare any dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. Our ability to pay dividends on our common stock is limited by the covenants of our Credit Agreement. See “Dividend Policy.”

Nasdaq symbol

“CERT”

Except as otherwise indicated, all information in this prospectus regarding the number of shares of common stock that will be outstanding immediately after this offering is based on 152,979,479 shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020, and:

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excludes 30,052 shares of common stock underlying 30,052 restricted stock units that were outstanding as of December 31, 2020;

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does not reflect 20,000,000 shares of common stock available for future issuance under the Company’s 2020 Incentive Plan; and

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does not reflect 1,700,000 shares of common stock available for future issuance under the Company’s 2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

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SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

The following table sets forth the summary consolidated financial data of the Company for the periods presented. The summary consolidated financial data for the fiscal years 2018, 2019 and 2020, all of which contained 52 weeks, and the summary balance sheet data as of December 31, 2020 are derived from the audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included in our Annual Report, incorporated by reference in this prospectus. The historical results presented below are not necessarily indicative of financial results to be achieved in future periods.

The summary consolidated financial data set forth below should be read in conjunction with, and are qualified by reference to, “Capitalization” in this prospectus, as well as the section entitled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included in our Annual Report, incorporated by reference in this prospectus. Some of the financial data contained in this prospectus reflects the effects of, and may not total due to, rounding.

	YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31,
	2020			2019			2018
	(in thousands, except share and per share data)
Statement of operations and comprehensive income (loss) data:
Revenues		$	243,530		$	208,511		$	163,719
Cost of revenues			100,765			79,770			71,043
Operating expenses:
Sales and marketing			19,202			10,732			9,416
Research and development			19,644			11,633			10,478
General and administrative			88,482			47,926			43,393
Intangible asset amortization			37,414			36,241			31,625
Depreciation and amortization expense			2,443			2,596			2,416
Total operating expenses			167,185			109,128			97,328
Income (loss) from operations			(24,420)			19,613			(4,652)
Other expenses:
Interest expense			(25,296)			(28,004)			(27,802)
Miscellaneous, net			(465)			(760)			(107)
Total other expenses			(25,761)			(28,764)			(27,909)
Income (loss) before income taxes			(50,181)			(9,151)			(32,561)
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes			(784)			(225)			697
Net income (loss)			(49,397)			(8,926)			(33,258)
Other comprehensive (loss):
Foreign currency translation adjustment, net of tax			5,045			433			(16,721)
Change in fair value of interest rate swap, net of tax			(1,135)			(4,283)			1,079
Total other comprehensive income (loss)			3,910			(3,850)			(15,642)
Comprehensive income (loss)		$	(45,487)		$	(12,776)		$	(48,900)

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	YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31,
	2020			2019			2018
Per share data:
Net income (loss) per share attributable to common stockholders:
Basic		$	(0.37)		$	(0.07)		$	(0.25)
Diluted			(0.37)			(0.07)			(0.25)
Weighted average common shares outstanding:
Basic			133,247,212			132,407,786			132,407,786
Diluted			133,247,212			132,407,786			132,407,786

	YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31,
	2020			2019			2018
	(in thousands)
Cash flow data:
Net cash provided by (used in):
Operating activities		$	44,810		$	38,025		$	11,592
Investing activities			(8,612)			(9,517)			(73,905)
Financing activities			208,214			(8,489)			57,296
Cash paid for interest			27,607			26,428			25,713
Cash paid for taxes			12,278			4,109			3,165
Non-GAAP Metrics:
Adjusted EBITDA(1)		$	87,877		$	68,411		$	44,964
Adjusted Net Income (loss)(1)		$	22,037		$	839		$	(17,586)
Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share(1)		$	0.17		$	0.01		$	(0.14)

	AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2020
	(in thousands)
Balance sheet data:
Cash and cash equivalents		$	271,382
Total assets			1,269,400
Total liabilities			447,268
Total stockholders’ equity			822,132

(1)

Management uses various financial metrics, including total revenues, income from operations, net income, and certain metrics that are not required by, or presented in accordance with, GAAP, such as Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, and Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share, to measure and assess the performance of our business, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, to make budgeting decisions, to make certain compensation decisions, and to compare our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures. We believe that presentation of the GAAP and the non-GAAP metrics in this filing will aid investors in understanding our business.

Management measures operating performance based on Adjusted EBITDA defined for a particular period as net income (loss) excluding interest expense, provision (benefit) for income taxes, depreciation and amortization expense, intangible asset amortization, equity-based compensation expense, acquisition and integration expense, and other items not indicative of our ongoing operating performance. Management also measures operating performance based on Adjusted Net Income defined for a particular period as net income (loss) excluding, equity-based compensation expense, acquisition and integration expense, and other items not indicative of our ongoing operating performance. Further, management measures operating performance based on Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share defined for a particular period as Adjusted Net Income divided by the weighted-average diluted common shares outstanding.

We believe Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, and Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share are helpful to investors, analysts, and other interested parties because they can assist in providing a more consistent and comparable overview of our operations across our historical periods. In addition, these measures are frequently used by analysts, investors, and other interested parties to evaluate and assess performance.

Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, and Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share are non-GAAP measures and are presented for supplemental purposes only and should not be considered as an alternative or substitute to financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted

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EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share have certain limitations in that they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in our consolidated statements of operations that are necessary to run our business. Other companies, including other companies in our industry, may not use these measures and may calculate both differently than as presented, limiting the usefulness as a comparative measure.

The following table reconciles net loss to Adjusted EBITDA.

	YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31,
	2020			2019			2018
	(in thousands)
Adjusted EBITDA:
Net loss(a)		$	(49,397)		$	(8,926)		$	(33,258)
Interest expense(a)			25,296			28,004			27,802
Interest income(a)			(44)			(9)			(9)
(Benefit from) provision for income taxes(a)			(784)			(225)			697
Depreciation and amortization expense(a)			2,443			2,596			2,416
Intangible asset amortization(a)			40,310			38,964			34,595
Currency loss (a)			715			431			23
Equity-based compensation expense(b)			64,507			1,691			1,711
Acquisition-related expense(c)			1,456			2,471			6,718
Integration expense(d)			78			546			2,822
Transaction related expenses(e)			1,908			—			—
Severance expense(f)			557			2,057			1,356
Reorganization expense(g)			525			222			—
Loss on disposal of fixed assets(h)			19			113			91
Executive recruiting expense(i)			288			476			—
Adjusted EBITDA		$	87,877		$	68,411		$	44,964

The following table reconciles net loss to Adjusted Net Income (Loss).

	YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31,
	2020			2019			2018
	(in thousands)
Adjusted Net Income (Loss):
Net loss(a)		$	(49,397)		$	(8,926)		$	(33,258)
Currency loss (a)			715			431			23
Equity-based compensation expense(b)			64,507			1,691			1,711
Acquisition-related expense(c)			1,456			2,471			6,718
Integration expense(d)			78			546			2,822
Transaction related expenses(e)			1,908			—			—
Severance expense(f)			557			2,057			1,356
Reorganization expense(g)			525			222			—
Loss on disposal of fixed assets(h)			19			113			91
Executive recruiting expense(i)			288			476			—
Income tax expense impact of adjustments(j)			1,381			1,758			2,951
Adjusted Net Income (Loss)		$	22,037		$	839		$	(17,586)

The following table reconciles diluted earnings per share to Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share.

YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31,
2020	2019	2018
(in thousands)

SEC Form S-1 filed by Certara, Inc.