Aveanna Healthcare kicked off April with a new acquisition announcement. The Atlanta, Georgia-based company announced on April 3 that it entered into an agreement to acquire Thrive Skilled Pediatric Care (Thrive SPC) in Wakefield, Massachusetts.
Thrive SPC provides clinical home care to medically fragile children. Thrive SPC operates 23 locations across Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, New Mexico, North Carolina, Virginia and Texas, primarily offering private duty nursing services along with pediatric therapy, licensed health aide services and certified nurse assistant services.
Aveanna Healthcare, a portfolio company of Bain Capital and J.H. Whitney Capital Partners, is one of the largest pediatric home health care companies in the United States. It was formed with the merger of Epic Health Services and PSA Healthcare in March 2017. Aveanna went public through a $100 million IPO in April 2021. According to its fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 financial results, Aveanna’s full-year (FY) 2024 revenue was more than $2 billion, and its FY 2024 adjusted EBITDA was $183.6 million.
The acquisition, expected to close in Q2 2025, will expand Aveanna’s presence across seven states, including in two new markets (Kansas and New Mexico).
Edge Healthcare Partners and Bass, Berry & Sims served as Aveanna’s advisors, while Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and Ropes & Gray LLP represented Thrive SPC. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The transaction will be funded through a combination of common stock shares and cash from Aveanna’s balance sheet. Funding the deal with both stock and cash shows a balanced approach, avoiding heavy debt. This means some dilution for shareholders but keeps debt levels in check. According to the original April 3 deal press release, Thrive SPC is also backed by Summit Partners, a growth investment firm with a strong reputation for backing promising healthcare enterprises, which adds credibility to the target’s operational quality.
According to data captured in the LevinPro HC database, this acquisition marks the 30th Home Health & Hospice (HH&H) transaction announced in 2025. This marks a 36% increase from the prior year, when 22 HH&H transactions were reported between January 1, 2024, and April 3, 2024. There were 96 HH&H deals announced during FY 2024, 100 announced during FY 2023 and 115 announced during FY 2022.
Additionally, this marks Aveanna’s first deal announcement since December 2021 when it acquired California-based Accredited Home Care. After announcing eight HH&H between 2019 and 2021, Aveanna took a break from its M&A strategy. However, in November 2024, Aveanna’s CEO Jeff Shaner announced that it will be ramping up its M&A activity in the HH&H space during the first half of 2025.
