FirstMeridian acquihires pharma HR services player, Cornucopia

Human resources services platform FirstMeridian has completed the acquihire of a business unit of HR consulting firm Cornucopia for an undisclosed amount.

FirstMeridian has absorbed the the talent acquisition and staffing unit of Cornucopia, which serves pharmaceutical and healthcare firms in India.The firm's existing business and associated team will now become part of V5 Global, which is a FirstMeridian portfolio Company.

Since its inception in mid-2018, FirstMeridian has acquired three HR solution providers, namely Innovsource, V5 Global and Affluent Global cutting across various segments in the Industry. Private equity firm Samara Capital, along with Goldman Sachs and Hong Kong-based investment firm Janchor Partners formed FirstMeridian, an investment platform empowered by technology and innovation in Staffing, Managed Services, Recruitment and HR Automation.


Cornucopia was founded by N Ahmedali in 2004. He is also the managing director of the firm. He said, "Cornucopia’s domain knowledge and expertise in the Healthcare business now coupled with marketing capabilities and backend infrastructure of V5 Global (A FirstMeridian Portfolio Company), we have no doubt that Cornucopia-V5 Global will become the premier staffing and talent solution provider in the healthcare industry in India and beyond."

The acquisition is intended to help FirstMeridian tackle the increasing need for qualified healthcare workers with the sector seeing more demand due to the COVID-19 crisis. The demand has risen in areas like project management, sales, product development, R&D, legal and regulatory departments.

Sudhakar Balakrishnan, Group CEO at FirstMeridian said, ‘We welcome the Cornucopia team into the FirstMeridian fold. Partnering with FirstMeridian, they can leverage our in-depth market experience, PAN India Presence and organizational strengths to penetrate deeper into the Healthcare/Pharma sector.’