Austin, Texas-based ABA Connect has acquired Colorado Springs, Colorado-based autism provider Bright Behavior LLC.
The deal marks ABA Connect’s first operation outside of Texas. Now, the company operates 11 clinics. The Coral Gables, Florida-based private equity firm MBF Healthcare Partners acquired ABA Connect in November 2022. ABA Connect was founded in 2013.
“Not only does this acquisition allow us to serve more families and expand outside of Texas, but the team at Bright Behavior also brings significant capabilities into our organization,” Kirsten Brooks, founder of ABA Connect, said in a news release.
The deal also elevates Bright Behavior founder Shasta Brenske to the chief clinical officer role for ABA Connect.
“We are looking forward to leveraging the foundation at ABA Connect to rapidly expand access to services, invest further in our clinicians and employees, and continue to raise the standard of delivering these critical services to children in need of them,” Brenske said.
ABA Connect offers center-based autism therapy focusing on early intervention and applied behavior analysis (ABA).
MBF Healthcare Partners acquired ABA Connect’s predecessor organization, Austin Connect to Wellness, at the end of 2022, a little more than a year after it sold Acorn Health, another autism therapy company. MBF Healthcare Partners founded and launched Acorn Health with Vicki Kroviak in 2018 and sold the company to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board in 2021. Even after the sale, Acorn Health has continued to grow.
Dealmaking and expansion in the autism therapy space continue despite the tumult. Large private equity-backed autism therapy platforms have tripped over several hurdles, including staffing challenges and reimbursement rate challenges. The Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD), once the largest autism therapy provider in the nation, filed for bankruptcy after struggling with these market forces. It was recently sold back to its founder.
However, other organizations have seen growth. ABA Center of America recently doubled its footprint through its cash flows and the wealth of its executives. Meanwhile, the private equity firms KKR and Altamont Capital revived autism therapy assets from a previous platform company and set them up in the new company, Gracent LLC.
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