MemorialCare Health System has its own private equity fund with about $80 million.
“We invest in companies that we believe can contribute value in healthcare,” said Barry Arbuckle, who is chairman of the equity fund, as well as CEO of MemorialCare.
“It either reduces cost, improves the quality of the patient experience or ideally does both.”
MemorialCare will also try out the products sold by the company it invests in, he said.
Management is the key to whether it will invest from $2 million to as much as $8 million, Arbuckle said.
“The team is critical,” he said. “You can have a genius at the helm but has no idea how to execute so we look at the entire team.”
Secondarily, the fund will invest if it believes in the opportunity for a good return.
For example, at one point it was the largest institutional investor in PerfectServe Inc., a Knoxville, Tenn.-based provider of secure messaging for the healthcare industry. It was acquired in 2018 by K1 Investment Management, an El Segundo-based private equity fund.
“It was a multiple return,” Arbuckle said.
—Peter J. Brennan
