Creating Healthy Growth

LDC has decades of experience supporting management teams in the healthcare sector. In the last decade, we’ve invested £448m into 19 UK healthcare businesses. We work in partnership to help our portfolio companies to grow through M&A, international expansion, and investing in organic growth.

We asked four CEOs from our healthcare portfolio to reflect on how private equity is helping them to achieve their ambitions. For each of these leaders, while individual to each business, the common answer goes beyond capital – it’s about experience, partnership, support and the ability to move faster and smarter.

From all corners of the UK, we’ve supported some of the most ambitious management teams in healthcare businesses across sub sectors including healthcare services, pharma services and HealthTech & devices.

In healthcare services, we supported leading preventative healthcare specialist PAM Group to more than double revenue from £29m to £67m during a successful five-year partnership, and expand the number of employees it supports from 600,000 to more than 1.5 million, across more than 1,500 client organisations.

In pharma services, we backed Fishawack Health to deliver a rapid buy and build strategy. We provided a further £18.5m in follow-on funding over three years to help the business extend its footprint across North America via acquisition, tripling its annual revenues.

In HealthTech & devices, our investment in mobility specialist Kingswood has helped the business to accelerate the integration of ESG into its business model. By moving production to a new 50,000 sq ft manufacturing site – identified by LDC – the distance driven by Kingswood’s fleet will reduce by over 100,000 miles a year. This will save 48 tonnes of CO2 in vehicle emissions and reducing Kingswood’s vehicle fuel bill by 10%.

The key to the success of any private equity investment is partnership. We’re proud to partner with ambitious management teams from all corners of the UK to help them accelerate the growth of their businesses.

The most common characteristic of the management teams we back is ambition. Finding a partner who can share that ambition is important. Our experience of investing means that we can offer support, guidance, opportunities and challenge, alongside growth capital, to help management teams to make the best decisions with the best outcomes.

Private equity can play an important role in fostering innovation and enabling growth, while maintaining a focus on patient outcomes. It’s also important to be able to draw on a strong network. Alongside our sector dinners that connect business leaders across industry, we have an experienced network of Non-Executive Directors supporting our healthcare portfolio.

LDC was named Private Equity Investor of the Year at the 2025 HealthInvestor Awards. HealthInvestor is the leading source of news and intelligence for investors, operators and advisors focused on the health sector. The judges praised LDC’s new investments and follow on funding for its existing portfolio companies, demonstrating once again its sector commitment and expansive and diverse investment approach.

Whilst healthcare is a diverse sector, there are three common challenges we’ve seen across our portfolio and in the market recently.

1. Investment in Technology

Firstly, to increase competitiveness and efficiency, management teams should be looking at effective ways to adopt new technology, alongside prioritising cyber security and data protection as core infrastructure.

2. Success through Partnerships

Secondly, to scale community healthcare services, strategic partnerships are key. Whether collaborating with public systems, private providers, or technology platforms, partnerships allow businesses to broaden their reach and deliver services effectively.

As investors, our role is to empower management teams with the resources, guidance, and networks they need to build and manage these partnerships successfully.

3. Sustainability Remains Key

Finally, ESG remains a vital priority for growth, and is critical in procurement and commercial partnerships. LDC can help management teams embed ESG principles.