Ascent invested in the first institutional round of Nova Holdings which had two operating divisions: Nova Analytics and Nova Technologies. Through both organic growth and acquisitions, Nova grew to become a global player in electrochemistry analytical instrumentation and flow and analysis equipment and services for wastewater analysis markets.

• Ascent worked with the founders over the course of 2002, helped to define the investment model and structure, and made our first investment in Nova in March of 2003.
• Ascent was also closely engaged in the first two key acquisitions, a $5M electrochemistry product line of instrumentation from Corning and Wissensschaftlich-Technische-Werdivision (“WTW”) a $40M German-based manufacturer and leader in electrochemistry analytical instrumentation market.
• Nova Technologies was acquired by IDEX in January 2008 and Nova Analytics was sold to ITT in March 2010.