ZINC Ahead chief executive James Brown anticipates the Oxford-based company will take on more staff following its US$130m (£86m) acquisition by Veeva Systems.

San Francisco-based Veeva completed the cash transaction, which included paying off Zinc Ahead’s undisclosed debt, on September 29.

Mr Brown said: “My view is that this time next year we will be a bigger organisation in Oxford. We expect to see even stronger growth. We will be looking to recruit staff in the future in our Oxford office.”

He said Zinc Ahead, whose major shareholder was previously US-based private equity firm Accel-KKR, currently employs about 120 people in Oxford.

Mr Brown said the management team at Zinc Ahead, which was founded in 2001 and provides commercial content management solutions for more than 120 life sciences companies around the world, had decided about a year ago to team up with a larger company to “drive forward more quickly how we help our clients”.

Over the past two years, there had been changes in how to manage and distribute digital content – such as websites, videos and apps – at life science companies within an increasing regulatory framework, he added.

Veeva specialises in cloud-based software for the global life sciences industry.

Mr Brown will now lead Veeva’s commercial content management business.

Zinc Ahead generates annual revenue of about US$30m (£20m). Mr Brown said the company was “very profitable”, although he declined to specify its annual earnings.

It employs about 190 staff overall.