healthcare software

Frontier Capital has made a growth equity investment in Clearwave, a provider of digital check-in, insurance eligibility, and patient payments systems to health systems and physician practices.

Clearwave’s products replace paper-based processes and are used by hospitals, health systems, urgent care, family, and multi-specialty providers to improve operational efficiencies by accelerating point-of-service collections, providing real-time insurance eligibility verification, and reducing patient check-in times.

The company’s products significantly reduce data errors resulting in reduced claims rejections from insurance providers. Clearwave, led by CEO Gerard White, currently serves over 500 healthcare facilities nationwide and is headquartered in Atlanta (www.clearwaveinc.com).

“As an early innovator in digital patient intake solutions, we believe our success is a direct outcome of our focus being in alignment with our healthcare providers – providing the best possible patient experience,” said Mr. White. “We are at an exciting inflection point and are thrilled to work with the well-respected team at Frontier, who deeply understand our sector and the opportunities in front of us to expand our offering, evolve the patient experience, and strengthen our foothold as a leader in the space.”

Frontier’s investment in Clearwave will be used to further its technology and expand its sales and marketing operations as well as company staff.

Frontier typically makes minority and majority equity investments of $10 million to $50 million in software and technology-enabled business services companies that have revenues from $10 million to $30 million. The firm is based in Charlotte, NC (www.frontiercapital.com).

“We are excited to partner with Gerard and the team at Clearwave to further their position as an innovator in patient engagement and intelligent patient intake solutions,” said Andrew Lindner, a partner at Frontier. “The process of checking in at a healthcare provider remains a frustratingly cumbersome and antiquated process which will inevitably change in this era of consumer-focused healthcare. Clearwave is leading the industry in improving the overall patient experience while accelerating payment collection cycles and reducing claims denials. We look forward to working together with Clearwave to make the process of accessing the healthcare system a more streamlined and enjoyable experience.”

Frontier’s investment in Clearwave comes from the firm’s oversubscribed $700 million Frontier Fund V, which closed in December 2017. The firm’s earlier fund closed in 2015 with $390 million of capital.

Healthcare Growth Partners (www.hgp.com), a Houston-based investment bank, was the financial advisor to Clearwave on this transaction.

© 2019 Private Equity Professional | March 26, 2019

Alpine Investors has made an investment in Optima Healthcare Solutions. Optima’s founding team will maintain a minority equity ownership position and remain active in the management of the company.

Optima provides therapy management software that is used by post-acute care providers to improve both patient outcomes and operating efficiencies. The company’s leading product is RehabOptima, an SaaS product used by more than 8,000 skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities and contract therapy companies. Optima has offices in Palm City, FL and Atlanta, GA (www.optimahcs.com).

“Optima is an outstanding growth company,” said Alpine Partner Mark Strauch.  “We were immediately impressed with what this special group of founders had built based on their commitment to product excellence and customer experience.”

Alpine invests in founder-owned, middle-market companies in the software, online and business services industries that have from $5 million to $15 million of EBITDA.  Since founding in 2001, Alpine has raised over $900 million of committed capital though five funds. The firm is based in San Francisco (www.alpine-investors.com).

Josh Pickus, an Alpine CEO in Residence, has become Optima’s new Chief Executive Officer. Before becoming a CEO in Residence at Alpine in November 2014, Mr. Pickus was the President and CEO of Support.com – a provider of software and services that are used to resolve connected technology issues – from April 2006 to April 2014.

“When we decided to bring in a partner to help grow our business, we knew we’d found something special in Alpine,” said Optima’s founder, Steve Mackie. “Their mission and values stand out in the private equity universe, and their CEO in Residence program brings to Optima the leadership talent we sought. Josh Pickus has tremendous growth experience that will help us meet our customers’ evolving needs.”

© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 11-20-15

Carrick Capital Partners has made a majority investment in the Procura Group of Companies, a provider of healthcare software and services.

Procura is a provider of post-acute software to home care, hospice, community, aged, disability and residential care organizations across the United States, Canada and Australia.  The company’s software is currently serving over 30,000 users at more than 2,300 customer sites, with over 229,000 employees providing care for 1.55 million individuals and managing 45,000 residential beds daily.  The organization is comprised of Procura Home Care Solutions, Progresa Healthcare Systems, ContinuLink Homecare Software and Procura Australia (formerly PeoplePoint Solutions).  Procura is headquartered in Victoria, BC and has offices in Chicago, Boca Raton, Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane (www.goprocura.com).

Procura will remain under the leadership of Scott Overhill, who has been promoted from President to Chief Executive Officer.

“Procura is well positioned to become a dominant player in the global home health and residential health markets,” said Mr. Overhill.  “We wanted a growth-oriented investment partner with a successful track record of scaling high growth companies, deep domain expertise in healthcare, and a dedication to high quality customer service. Carrick met all of our criteria. Their “Approach to Building Value” combined with Procura’s market expertise, outstanding product depth, and dedication to customer service will help us drive increased growth and sustain our position as a market leader.”

Marc McMorris, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Carrick Capital Partners, will be involved as an active member of Procura’s board, and will be joined by Alex Mason, Director of Carrick Capital Partners. Additionally, Michael Greenough, former CEO of SSA Global – an ERP software development company –  who participated in the transaction, will take an active role as the company’s Executive Chairman.

“As the population ages and healthcare costs continue to rise, there will be increased focus on proactively managing patient populations in the most comfortable and cost-effective settings available; patients’ homes,” said Mr. McMorris. “Procura has built a valuable collection of products positioned to reduce healthcare costs and improve clinical outcomes. We are excited by the opportunity to help them accelerate growth and address evolving industry pain points.”

Carrick Capital Partners invests in companies with revenues of $10 million to $100 million that serve large markets with business models that allow for increasing profitability as they gain scale. Carrick focuses on investing in companies that provide technology-enabled service offerings, business process outsourcing, transaction processing, software as a service and enterprise software. The firm was co-founded in 2012 by Marc McMorris, a former General Atlantic managing director who led investments in business services and software, and Jim Madden, the previous founder and chief executive of Exult, a human resources business processing company. Carrick Capital Partners is based in San Francisco (www.carrickcapitalpartners.com).

© 2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 5-22-14