Blue Heron, along with five partners, invested $11 million in a 3-year-old telemedicine firm. Credit: Blue Heron Capital.
Further deploying part of its eight-figure investment pool, a local private equity firm has struck a deal to fund a fast-growing Northern Virginia healthcare IT company.
Blue Heron Capital, founded in Richmond in 2010 by Tom Benedetti and Andrew Tichenor, announced this week it led an $11 million investment in Reston-based Avizia, a 3-year-old company in the telemedicine industry that sells mobile video technology to hospital systems.
Blue Heron was joined in the investment by five other firms, including Lavrock Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Middleland Capital and Blu Ventures, all from Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. Blue Heron declined to specify the amount it invested in Avizia, but Benedetti said it provided a “sizeable chunk” of the $11 million. It now has a minority stake in Avizia.
The Avizia deal is the fifth investment Blue Heron has made with capital from its Blue Heron Capital Fund I. It finished raising the $25.5 million fund in 2013 and plans to fully invest it by 2017, and to exit those deals by 2021, Benedetti said. The first fund is also backed by extra fire power through a committment from Blue Heron’s investors to match the fund’s investments on certain deals.
“We anticipate completing investment of Fund I in the next year or so,” he said, adding that it will likely do two more deals with the first fund, before a second funding round.
In Avizia, Benedetti said Blue Heron sees a way to further invest in the telemedicine industry, which he said research suggests is a $14.5 billion market.
“By 2020 that will be $34 billion,” Benedetti said, citing the same research. “We see that as a real adoption of the technology across the entire healthcare system.”
Tom Benedetti
Avizia’s niche is in selling mobile carts with video capability and interconnected records systems that allow doctors and nurses to interact with each other and patients – within the same facility or over long distances.
Benedetti said Blue Heron got a taste for the telehealth field when it invested in PresenceLearning, which offers an online, video-based speech therapy curriculum for children.
The firm likes Avizia’s model of selling to hospitals. Its customers include UVA Medical Center and 15 of the nation’s 25 largest hospital systems, Benedetti said.
“We started looking for an opportunity that was more directly focused on hospital systems,” he said. “We feel like the better adoption rates are going to be to the hospital systems.”
Benedetti, a William & Mary graduate, started the first iteration of Blue Heron in 2010 with Tichenor, a UR grad. They initially invested in a handful of companies through their Richmond Area Investment Network, before launching the initial fund.
The firm has largely invested in healthcare, IT and services companies. Its targets are businesses with $2 million to $20 million in revenue that have an established customer base, a working product and an established management team.
“We look for companies that we think have a great management team, are growing quickly but could use some capital and expertise,” Benedetti said.
With each of its deals, Blue Heron typically takes a board seat within the company and has at least one of its investors directly assist the company’s management. The firm’s model includes bringing on mostly investors that have built and sold businesses, or are or have been C-suite level executives.
Among the big local names on its list of investor/operators is John Luke Jr., chairman of Richmond-based WestRock, formerly MeadWestvaco. Blue Heron’s investment committee consists of Michael Dan, former CEO of locally based Brink’s Co., and Michael Fraizer, former CEO of Genworth Financial.
Blue Heron’s first investment was in a company in San Francisco, Benedetti said. Since then, it has largely narrowed its geographic radius to companies headquartered from Dallas to the East Coast.
Three of its investments have been in companies in Virginia and one has been in Washington, D.C., but it has yet to find a deal in Richmond, Benedetti said.
“We’re still looking. We would love to have one,” he said. “We’re not going to do a Richmond deal just to do a Richmond deal. The best thing we can do for Richmond is build a great firm.”
Blue Heron, along with five partners, invested $11 million in a 3-year-old telemedicine firm. Credit: Blue Heron Capital.
Further deploying part of its eight-figure investment pool, a local private equity firm has struck a deal to fund a fast-growing Northern Virginia healthcare IT company.
Blue Heron Capital, founded in Richmond in 2010 by Tom Benedetti and Andrew Tichenor, announced this week it led an $11 million investment in Reston-based Avizia, a 3-year-old company in the telemedicine industry that sells mobile video technology to hospital systems.
Blue Heron was joined in the investment by five other firms, including Lavrock Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Middleland Capital and Blu Ventures, all from Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. Blue Heron declined to specify the amount it invested in Avizia, but Benedetti said it provided a “sizeable chunk” of the $11 million. It now has a minority stake in Avizia.
The Avizia deal is the fifth investment Blue Heron has made with capital from its Blue Heron Capital Fund I. It finished raising the $25.5 million fund in 2013 and plans to fully invest it by 2017, and to exit those deals by 2021, Benedetti said. The first fund is also backed by extra fire power through a committment from Blue Heron’s investors to match the fund’s investments on certain deals.
“We anticipate completing investment of Fund I in the next year or so,” he said, adding that it will likely do two more deals with the first fund, before a second funding round.
In Avizia, Benedetti said Blue Heron sees a way to further invest in the telemedicine industry, which he said research suggests is a $14.5 billion market.
“By 2020 that will be $34 billion,” Benedetti said, citing the same research. “We see that as a real adoption of the technology across the entire healthcare system.”
Tom Benedetti
Avizia’s niche is in selling mobile carts with video capability and interconnected records systems that allow doctors and nurses to interact with each other and patients – within the same facility or over long distances.
Benedetti said Blue Heron got a taste for the telehealth field when it invested in PresenceLearning, which offers an online, video-based speech therapy curriculum for children.
The firm likes Avizia’s model of selling to hospitals. Its customers include UVA Medical Center and 15 of the nation’s 25 largest hospital systems, Benedetti said.
“We started looking for an opportunity that was more directly focused on hospital systems,” he said. “We feel like the better adoption rates are going to be to the hospital systems.”
Benedetti, a William & Mary graduate, started the first iteration of Blue Heron in 2010 with Tichenor, a UR grad. They initially invested in a handful of companies through their Richmond Area Investment Network, before launching the initial fund.
The firm has largely invested in healthcare, IT and services companies. Its targets are businesses with $2 million to $20 million in revenue that have an established customer base, a working product and an established management team.
“We look for companies that we think have a great management team, are growing quickly but could use some capital and expertise,” Benedetti said.
With each of its deals, Blue Heron typically takes a board seat within the company and has at least one of its investors directly assist the company’s management. The firm’s model includes bringing on mostly investors that have built and sold businesses, or are or have been C-suite level executives.
Among the big local names on its list of investor/operators is John Luke Jr., chairman of Richmond-based WestRock, formerly MeadWestvaco. Blue Heron’s investment committee consists of Michael Dan, former CEO of locally based Brink’s Co., and Michael Fraizer, former CEO of Genworth Financial.
Blue Heron’s first investment was in a company in San Francisco, Benedetti said. Since then, it has largely narrowed its geographic radius to companies headquartered from Dallas to the East Coast.
Three of its investments have been in companies in Virginia and one has been in Washington, D.C., but it has yet to find a deal in Richmond, Benedetti said.
“We’re still looking. We would love to have one,” he said. “We’re not going to do a Richmond deal just to do a Richmond deal. The best thing we can do for Richmond is build a great firm.”