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Just a year shy of its 10th anniversary and now delivering 30,000 home care visits a month, Brisbane-headquartered group Five Good Friends (FGF) has been acquired by global alternative investment manager TPG for an undisclosed sum.
TPG reports it has acquired a majority stake, and records lodged with the corporate regulator show $119.1 million was paid for FGF shares by a holding company based out of TPG's offices, which in turn is owned by a Singapore-based entity.
Simon Lockyer and Nathan Betteridge, who co-founded Five Good Friends with Tim Russell and Eevi founder David Waldie in 2016, retain "significant interests in the company" and will continue in their leadership roles. Global investment organisation EQT will retain a minority stake.
The funds are aimed at fuelling further growth for FGF in the home care sector, which the company's founders disrupted almost a decade ago with digitally-led solutions for a high-quality care experience, gaining market share over time to become a top 20 provider nationally in the space.
Five Good Friends also developed Lookout, a leading Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for home care operators that has been built specifically to cater to the needs of the Australian market.
The Lookout platform enables the automated tracking, monitoring and reporting of care quality and outcomes via automatic check-in and check-out, family access to the care platform, recorded care notes, tracking of client data with automated escalation to care managers, and complex rostering functions.
"For the entire Five Good Friends and Lookout team, TPG’s investment is validation of our ambitions to build a scalable care platform, that delivers a higher-quality care experience underpinned by transparency and improved oversight,” says Lockyer, who alongside Betteridge previously founded fundraising and donor management tool startup Everydayhero which was acquired by NASDAQ-listed Blackbaud for $7.6 million in 2011.
"Today, Five Good Friends delivers 30,000 home care visits a month and have provided a total of more than 3 million hours of care since we started. Lookout is powering the care and service delivery of over 100 home care and NDIS providers."
"With the additional support of TPG, and their extensive experience in the healthcare and software space, we see enormous potential to continue this growth, empowering more people to remain connected to the homes, friends, families and communities they love. By providing control, advice, support, and a connected health ecosystem, Five Good Friends and Lookout are committed to transforming home care into caring homes," adds Betteridge.
TPG's head of Australia and New Zealand, Joel Thickins, says Five Good Friends has built a "terrific business" with all the elements required for continued success.
"At a time when broader in-home aged care reforms are taking place to ensure Australia’s elderly live independently at home for longer, their approach to home care and disability support, coupled with their cloud-based software solution, has enabled them to create a truly unique care delivery platform that combines the best of technology and human care," Thickins says.
"Five Good Friends’ mission closely aligns with our thematic focus on backing techenabled businesses opening pathways to deliver higher quality and more efficient healthcare outcomes.
"We are excited to partner alongside Simon, Nathan and the Five Good Friends leadership in continuing to scale their platforms to become the leading home care solutions in market."
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