Life Couriers gains new CEO with sale to private equity firm

Munich, Germany-based Life Couriers, a provider of expedited and temperature-controlled logistics services with a core competence in the healthcare sector, has been acquired by private equity firm JLL Partners, the companies announced on Monday.

Concurrently, Life Couriers named Edward DeMartini as CEO. DeMartini served until October as CEO of The Quick Group of Companies, a global time-critical logistics and priority transport provider owned by Kuehne+Nagel. Prior to Quick Group, DeMartini was vice president airfreight development at Kuehne+Nagel, where he held a number of leadership roles over 12 years. His experience at Quick (Quick Logistics, QuickSTA and Sterling) supporting the pharma, biotech, life sciences, technology, aviation, automotive and semiconductor industries with white-glove solutions fits the type of work conducted by Life Couriers.

Why It Matters: The healthcare logistics market is growing because high technical and compliance requirements allow for lucrative value-added services beyond basic parcel transportation as an aging global population needs more drugs and biological medical products to deal with chronic disease, according to industry experts. DHL, FedEx and UPS are investing heavily in end-to-end cold-chain infrastructure and processes to ensure precise temperature management during shipping as they each flirt with $10 billion in annual healthcare-related revenue. Last year UPS acquired a large Canadian logistics firm that specializes in healthcare and DHL bought U.S. healthcare courier SDS Rx. FedEx recently stood up a standalone Life Sciences division , following UPS and DHL’s lead.

Other large logistics companies are actively investing in temperature-controlled networks as well as advanced quality control and security capabilities to stay ahead of demand.

The rapid growth in pharmaceutical distribution is being fueled by GLP-1 weight loss drugs, but also vaccines, biologics, gene therapies and other specialty medicines that are expensive, highly regulated and require transportation within tightly controlled temperature ranges.

As these advanced therapeutics gain ground, the healthcare logistics market is expected to double from $246 billion in 2024 to about $503 billion by 2034, according to a report by Allied Market Research. Complex healthcare is an $82 billion addressable market, UPS management has said.

Life Couriers has six specialized service lines, spanning radiopharmaceuticals, life science, stem cell onboard, direct-to-patient package delivery, pharmaceutical freight and emergency logistics. The company, which changed its name from Ontime Courier in 2025, has operations in the United States, Europe, Central America and Asia. The company utilizes its own infrastructure and exclusive agency partnerships to provide a range of capabilities, including onboard couriers that hand-carry urgent items on passenger flights, next-out flights, aircraft charters, and dedicated ground vehicles.

Life Couriers said it will use JLL’s financial resources and expertise in the healthcare industry to help expand operations and footprint amid growing demand for time-sensitive radiopharmaceutical and medical logistics services. JLL also has portfolio companies in the industrials and business services sectors.

“To JLL Partners, thank you for your confidence and your partnership. Your deep healthcare investment experience and your commitment to investing in our people and operations position Life Couriers to accelerate what comes next: continued growth across every business unit, deeper geographic reach, new investment in the technology and services our customers need, and a fully integrated Life Couriers speaking with one voice, globally,” DeMartini said on LinkedIn.

DeMartini, who started his career at DHL working in the life sciences and healthcare area, succeeds Stefan Glebke as CEO.

“Edward is a highly accomplished executive who brings extensive healthcare logistics experience and a proven track record of scaling operations and developing unique solutions to solve customers’ most pressing supply chain challenges. We thank Stefan for his contributions to Life Couriers, including successfully leading the development and integration of Life Couriers into a global healthcare logistics platform and helping position the business for its next stage of growth,” said Daniel Di Piazza, managing director at JLL Partners, in a news release.

New York-based JLL acquired Life Couriers from Auctus Capital Partners.

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper articles by Eric Kulisch.

Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.