XIFIN Acquired by Private Equity Firm

XIFIN, the San Diego-based laboratory finance, billing, and consulting company, has been purchased by a private equity firm that will likely underwrite its continued expansion. Chicago-based GTCR purchased XIFIN in late July for an undisclosed sum, and the other terms of the deal were not disclosed. GTCR owns or has invested heavily in several health care firms, including regional hospital chain Capella Healthcare and Maravai Life Sciences, which develops in vitro diagnostics testing. “We believe XIFIN’s leading position, market expertise, and best-in-class technology provide a unique value proposition to laboratories as they navigate a complex reimbursement and regulatory environment,” said Dean Mihas, a GTCR managing director. XIFIN Chief Executive Officer Lâle White said the deal was a private equity recapitalization—a deal that allows prior investors in the company to be paid off. XIFIN’s early investors included Southern California firms Windward Ventures and Enterprise Partners. XIFIN remains heavily invested in the laboratory sector, providing cloud-based billing and management platforms. Last year it acquired PathCentral, an Irvine, Calif.-based firm with a proprietary cloud-based laboratory and anatomic pathology information system, and last spring it appointed an eight-member medical advisory board comprised of pathologists to help it with future product development and corporate strategy. However, White indicated that the company is now expanding beyond laboratories into other facets of health care delivery. “We are already focused beyond the lab/payer market and have radiology and device manufacturer clients,” she said. Both White and GTCR officials indicate that the latter company intends to invest heavily in continuing to expand XIFIN. “GTCR is a great partner for XIFIN,” White said. “They have tremendous capital resources and a proven history of building market-leading companies.” The deal was financed from GTCR’s Fund XI, a private equity fund seeded earlier this year with $3.85 billion of limited partner equity capital. GE Capital and CapitalSource funded this particular transaction. Takeaway: GTCR’s acquisition of XIFIN is expected to play into the latter company’s plans to expand beyond the laboratory sector.