M&A activity in Central Ohio continues to move forward despite the impact of the coronavirus on the markets and Ohio’s mandated shutdown of non-essential businesses and “shelter-in-place” orders given in March.
A majority of the transactions evolved around investments in the areas of labor and health care, which will be heavily affected by the current pandemic. Recognized Columbus-based venture capital firms Rev1 Ventures and Drive Capital were able to complete transactions last month.
Rev1 Ventures participated in a Series A round that raised $3.7 million for Upshift, a Cincinnati-based, on-demand staffing platform that connects businesses in need of extra help with a pool of pre-vetted W-2 workers.
Drive Capital participated in a Series D round raising $32.8 million for Olive Inc., a Columbus-based AI health care startup, that would help fund its flagship product, an artificial intelligence-driven bot that helps large hospitals and health systems complete tedious administrative work.
Last of note, Columbus-based Nexus Practice IT Services, a premier health care IT services provider, was acquired by Medicus IT, a leading health care-focused managed services provider based in Georgia. The uniting of Medicus IT and Nexus will look to improve service delivery and offerings to increase benefits to its clients.
Deal of the Week
Our deal of the week focuses on Westerville-based DASCO, a leading regional distributor of durable medical equipment specializing in respiratory equipment such as home oxygen, non-invasive ventilation and CPAP equipment for sleep apnea.
Chicago-based Silver Oak Service Partners has recapitalized DASCO in an effort to leverage their expertise in health care to accelerate the company’s growth. DASCO has been owned and operated by the Seeley family since 1987 and serves patients throughout Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia.
This is Silver Oak’s first portfolio company bought from their fourth fund, which had a final close in August 2019, at its hard cap of $500 million. Silver Oak is actively seeking add-on acquisition opportunities for DASCO.
Selected Ohio mergers & acquisitions
Local companies in bold. Source: PitchBook and Copper Run research
| Closed/Announced | Target/Issuer Name | Buyer/Investor Name |
| March 2 | Royals Commercial Services | Installed Building Products |
| March 3 | UpShift (Staffing Platform) | Indeed and Rev1 Ventures |
| March 4 | Graphic Sciences | Intellinetics |
| March 11 | Nexus Practice IT Services | Medicus (424 Capital and Plexus Capital) |
| March 17 | Dasco Home Medical Equipment | Silver Oak Services Partners |
| March 26 | Thayer Power & Communication | Calera Capital |
| March 31 | Olive (Healthcare Enterprise Systems) | General Catalyst |
Michael Shaw is a partner and managing director at Copper Run Capital, where he assists with both sell side and buy side assignments and business development. Shaw has experience evaluating the strategic and financial implications of M&A from smaller privately held companies up to $1 billion-plus market capitalization companies.
