Norwest Equity Partners has made an investment in Institute for Integrative Nutrition, one of the largest and oldest professional health coaching certification programs.
Integrative Nutrition provides a six or twelve-month long online Health Coach Training Program which teaches dietary theories as well as personal development philosophy, health coaching, and business skills. Courses are taught by company educators and guest lecturers and include physicians, researchers, doctors, and nutrition experts. Integrative Nutrition has more than 100 employees and is headquartered in New York (www.integrativenutrition.com).
Integrative Nutrition was founded in 1992 by Joshua Rosenthal and NEP is the first institutional investor in the business. NEP will assist the company in adding incremental course offerings, diversifying its content, and expanding its geographic reach.
“With continued significant momentum in the health coaching industry, Integrative Nutrition has grown to be a unique and innovative company that offers an original approach to health and wellness training,” said Tim DeVries, NEP Managing Partner. “With a highly-scalable program driven by industry-leading content, we are confident that the combination of our capital and resources will help propel additional capabilities and knowledge for health professionals across the board. We are really excited about this opportunity and can’t wait to see Integrative Nutrition continue to drive the expansion of the nutrition and health coaching industry.”
Integrative Nutrition will work with Mike Gerend and Mark Thom, both are NEP operating partners and have direct experience with active lifestyle, health and wellness, consumer, and technology companies.
“We are excited about both the continued expansion of NEP’s active lifestyle platform to include health & wellness and the growth prospects for Integrative Nutrition,” said Mr. Gerend. “Health coaching is on the forefront of revolutionizing the approach to helping people live healthier, and Integrative Nutrition is leading the way. This investment partnership will provide them with the necessary resources to expand aggressively across a number of sectors and segments.” In addition to helping source and evaluate investment opportunities for NEP, Messrs. Gerend and Thom are active in strategic planning, business growth, and corporate governance for NEP portfolio companies.
NEP’s experience in the active lifestyle sector includes Wahoo, a provider of smart training products including indoor bike trainers and GPS bike computers (acquired in July 2018); Movati Athletic, a fitness club operator in Canada (acquired in October 2014); The Edge Fitness, a fitness club operator on the East Coast (acquired in December 2014); and Life Time Fitness, a fitness club operator (acquired in June 1996 and exited via an IPO in October 2006).
NEP makes equity investments of $30 million to $250 million in companies that have more than $10 million in EBITDA. Sectors of interest include agriculture, business services, consumer, distribution, industrials, energy, and healthcare. In April 2015, NEP closed Norwest Equity Partners X LP, a $1.6 billion fund and Norwest Mezzanine Partners IV LP, an $800 million fund formed by NEP’s affiliated mezzanine investment firm, Norwest Mezzanine Partners. NEP is based in Minneapolis (www.nep.com).
PennantPark Investment Advisers provided senior debt financing and Norwest Mezzanine Partners provided subordinated debt financing.
BMO Capital Markets was the financial advisor to Integrative Nutrition.
© 2018 Private Equity Professional | October 5, 2018
