TripleTree professionals Jon Hill and Jonathan Kiss recently attended the 2025 Autism Investor Summit where Jonathan Kiss, along with other advisory and investment professionals, shared insights on how to unlock value in the highly fragmented autism services market. Learn more about the conversation below, including how investor activity in this sector continues to grow.
The following is a modified summary of some of the insights Jonathan shared on the panel.
Q: Describe how you look at the behavioral health/autism market and how you are seeing private equity firms engaging in the market. Are they defined by certain characteristics? If so, please explain.
Jonathan: TripleTree has been working in the Autism Services field advising clients since 2016. I'd say we were very bullish back then, and we remain very bullish today. What has changed, though, is the resiliency we see in this market, and it underscores how strong the fundamentals really are. Whether we’re talking about the clinical impact of ABA therapy on children, the unrelenting demand, the fragmentation of the marketplace, or the scalability of the care delivery model, we can confidently say that those are the attributes that led to the first significant wave of investment in the 2018-2020 timeframe.
Q: How did some of the major headwinds in the early 2020s affect this industry?
Jonathan: This industry experienced one of the most challenging operating environments in the healthcare services industry more broadly. Ultimately, no one underwrote the pandemic, no one underwrote the Great Resignation or the subsequent wage inflation in a sector that was already challenged by a limited supply of clinicians. As a result, it made operators and organizations think more critically about more efficient ways to deliver care, including how to better build their business for long-term, sustained success.
Q: What does that mean for today’s investing market?
Jonathan: Now we’re in a second wave of investment – essentially, funds and investors are no longer just looking to ride the tailwinds of these macro fundamentals. The businesses today that are seeing interest from the private equity community are those that really are differentiating themselves in the marketplace - and that might be through more sophisticated or standardized operations, strong payer relations, access to care improvement, or a unique growth avenue.
Q: Who’s investing in 2025?
Jonathan: First and foremost, there's no shortage of private equity interest in our processes, particularly in the middle market. Many of the investors who sat on the sidelines in 2018 and 2019 or maybe got outbid back then, are at the table today. They're still very much interested. The common denominator across all of these funds is that they all have a deep understanding in the U.S. healthcare services industry, but they've also now had the benefit of hindsight from being able to study the successes and failures of these original platform investments; they now know what to look out for.
We’re also seeing new buyer and investor categories emerging, including social impact funds as shown by some trades in the last six months. Additionally, we are seeing some European-based funds that are interested. But again, they need to have a solid understanding and grounding of the U.S. healthcare ecosystem, really to compete in any sort of process.
Q: An overarching theme in the autism space seems to be the fragmentation in the market. What do you expect to see in the latter half of this year and into 2026?
Jonathan: Yes, it remains an incredibly fragmented market. We certainly have seen an uptick in strategic M&A in the industry, and we expect more consolidation as the industry continues to mature. There are even large private equity funds that had to come down market to find a platform asset and are looking to deploy additional capital through M&A. So, we certainly expect to see more strategic buyers at the table. However, there needs to be strong alignment, both in terms of the clinical philosophy and the utilization of their labor force, for it to make sense.
Q: What would you say is the next major force making its mark on the industry?
Jonathan: Healthcare technology advancements are significant right now, and even more specifically, outcomes reporting. Improving the dialogue with payers is critical, and operators are looking at them as a true partner. The organizations that come to those discussions with progress and utilization reports, demonstrating strong clinical improvements for their members, can go a long way in supporting that partnership.
TripleTree continues to keep a pulse on the ever-growing behavioral health market. Read more about our perspectives in these previous publications.
Industry Insights: Autism Services Sector Earns Investor Attention
A Health Check on the Autism Sector
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