Transactions: Caravel’s Latest Acquisition; Helios Helps Recapitalize 32-Facility Behavioral Portfolio

Caravel deepens Wisconsin footprint with acquisition

Caravel Autism Health is expanding services in its home state of Wisconsin with the purchase of the Center for Autism Treatment, which is based in the Milwaukee suburb of Mequon.

Terms of the deal were not released.

Overall, Caravel operates more than 40 centers across Wisconsin, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Washington state. 

It provides services such as evaluation, diagnosis and applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy to children with autism. Additionally, Caravel can provide its services in-home and by telehealth.

The company is owned by the private equity and venture capital firm Frazier Healthcare Partners.

Broadstep purchases youth-focused behavioral provider

Months after deepening its footprint in South Carolina, Broadstep Behavioral Health has once again expanded its presence there.

Raleigh, North Carolina-based Broadstep — which provides services to people with intellectual and developmental disorders (I/DD), mental illnesses and co-occurring disorders — has acquired Pinelands Group Homes.

Terms of the transaction were not announced.

Pinelands operates four centers in the Summerville area, providing programs for children and adolescents with significant behavioral, emotional, familial and/or social functioning impairments.

Broadsteps’ purchase of Pinelands brings more South Carolina facilities into its portfolio and comes after its January purchase of Simpsonville-based special needs provider Excalibur Youth Services. Overall, Broadstep operates over 90 locations across North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, New Jersey, Nebraska and Wisconsin.

Broadstep is a portfolio company of Bain Capital’s Double Impact Fund.

DarioHealth enlarges its behavioral health presence with acquisition

Digital therapeutics provider DarioHealth Corp. (Nasdaq: DRIO) has entered into an agreement to acquire wayForward, a virtual behavioral health platform headquartered in India.

The purchase is worth a consideration price of $30 million, with $25 million to be paid immediately upon closing and another $5 million due if DarioHealth’s behavioral health revenues exceed a certain threshold next year, according to a press release announcing the news.

Of the $25 million to be paid upfront, $6 million will come from cash and the remaining $19 million from DarioHealth common stock.

Founded in 2011, New York-based DarioHealth uses solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to help individuals manage chronic conditions including those related to diabetes, pre-diabetes, hypertension, the musculoskeletal system and behavioral health. In addition to the United States, DarioHealth’s therapeutics are available in Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Australia and New Zealand.

New Delhi-based wayForward — which has an American office in New York and also does businesses as PsyInnovations — similarly deploys AI to serve users. Those services include screenings, triaging, cognitive behavioral therapy, self-directed care, coaching and more, with in-person and telehealth assistance available.

The deal significantly ramps up DarioHealth’s behavioral offerings, as the company will gain access to a wayForward customer base of approximately 20,000 members and 20 self-insured employers.

As part of the deal, wayForward’s co-founders — CEO Ritvik Singh and Chief Clinical Officer Navya Singh — will join DarioHealth.

Helios helps recapitalize 32-facility behavioral portfolio

A portfolio of 32 behavioral health facilities owned by an affiliate of CapGrow Partners has been recapitalized with the assistance of Helios Healthcare Advisors, a Chicago-based advisory firm for middle market health care companies. According to a press release from Helios, the portfolio is a subset of a recent large transaction by a CapGrow affiliate.

Based in Chicago, CapGrow specializes in purchasing and constructing facilities for behavioral health providers, whereby the firm enters into agreements to lease the facilities back to those providers.

Helios was brought in to recapitalize the portfolio, which has holdings in seven states across the South and Midwest, according to the press release. Under the deal, Helios arranged a 7-year, fixed-rate product with a 25-year amortization to refinance the portfolio’s existing debt, with cash proceeds going to CapGrow for general corporate purposes.

The credit facility involved in the transaction is a mid-cap lender that is listed on the Nasdaq and which recently expanded its specialized industries group. Helios managing director Mario Wilson told Behavioral Health Business that due to a non-disclosure agreement, the identity of the lender has not been made publicly available.

Williams did note that Helios plans to engage in more behavioral health asset deals in the future.

“Our platform is set up to raise capital [and] sell companies, specifically within the health care industry,” he said. ”Behavioral health is a market that we’ve identified as something that’s primed for further growth and consolidation. We’ve got a bunch of deals that we’re currently working on — both on the capital side, as well as sales — that we’re structuring for clients all across the country.”

Wilson confirmed to BHB that the facilities in the CapGrow portfolio are located in Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Wilson added that, to his knowledge, the facilities serve all age groups — from children to geriatrics.