Want to read more content like this? Subscribe to Autism Business News today!
Addison, Texas-based Behavioral Innovations has a new private equity backer: Tenex Capital Management.
The New York City-based firm acquired the company for about $300 million, commanding a valuation in the high teens, according to a report by Mergermarkets. Autism Business News has heard rumblings for months that Behavioral Innovations was looking for a sale.
The Chicago-based private equity firm Shore Capital Partners previously backed the company. Shore invested in Behavioral Innovations in 2017. It has also invested in behavioral health companies such as Transformations Care Network, The Stepping Stones Group and BrightView Health.
Shore Capital has declined to comment on the matter. Tenex Capital Management and Behavioral Innovations have not yet responded to a request for comment.
Behavioral Innovations is among the largest autism therapy companies in the U.S.
The company’s website lists 80 locations in 3 states: Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas. Almost 80% of its locations (63) are in Texas.
The deal is one of the first significant platform deals to trade in 2024. The last major deal to transact where either part was of notable size was in October 2023 — when KKR-backed BlueSprig Pediatrics acquired Lakewood, Colorado-based Trumpet Behavioral Health.
Several industry insiders have predicted that pent-up dealmaking and investment demand would eventually overcome the hurdles of a high-interest rate environment, which has seen several high-profile stumbles in autism therapy. Before the BlueSprig Pediatrics-Trumpet Behavioral Health tie-up, the most significant deal of 2023 had been the bankruptcy sale of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD).
Some in the industry say that in the latter half of 2024 and the early months of 2025, several of the autism therapy platforms that were bought/sold or that got their first major investment during the historic dealmaking years from 2019 to 2021 will reach the end of typical three- to five-year hold periods.
Earlier in the month, news broke that Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Caravel Autism Health was working on a deal with the firm GTCR. Caravel is currently backed by Frazier Healthcare Partners. Frazier invested in the company in 2018.
