H2 Health Purchases Youth Provider Great Strides Rehabilitation

Grant Avenue Capital, LLC, a health care-focused private equity and venture capital firm, has made an investment in the pediatric care market through its portfolio company, H2 Health.

H2 Health has purchased Great Strides Rehabilitation, Inc, a Jacksonville, Florida-based provider of youth behavioral health services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Serving children and their families at locations in northeastern Florida, Great Strides provides behavioral health offerings like speech and music therapies, social skills development and applied behavior analysis (ABA). ABA is widely considered to be a gold standard of autism care.

Great Strides’ clients come from throughout northeastern and central Florida, as well as from central and southeastern Georgia. The provider accepts various insurances including Medicaid, along with private payment.

The sponsor finance team of BMO Harris Bank provided debt financing for the deal, with BMO Capital Markets acting as an advisor to H2 Health on the transaction.

“I have dedicated my career to improving wellbeing for children and families and believe the partnership with H2 Health will expand the opportunities for Great Strides to complete that mission,” Great Strides founder Jon Edenfield said in a press release regarding the deal.

H2 Health, which is also based in Jacksonville, provides a variety of outpatient health care rehabilitation services for children, adults and seniors. The company owns, operates and manages 102 clinics in eight states.

“The partnership between H2 Health and Great Strides Rehabilitation strengthens our long-term strategic goal of being the most comprehensive rehab provider for patients of all ages in the communities we serve,” Guy Sansone, the co-founder, CEO and chairman of H2 Health, said in the press release.

Sansone is also an advisory board member of Grant Avenue Capital.

Headquartered in New York, Grant Avenue Capital is a middle market firm that primarily invests in companies generating between approximately $5 million and $25 million of EBITDA.

Grant Avenue Capital previously invested in ABA services provider Acorn Health, which is presently majority-owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board.

“The acquisition of Great Strides significantly broadens H2 Health’s suite of therapy services.” Buddy Gumina, the founder and managing partner of Grant Avenue Capital, said in the press release. “In addition, the expansion of H2 Health is an excellent example of Grant Avenue Capital’s transformational growth playbook.”