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Peer Fund / Dealmaker·Behavioral Health

David Fitzgerald

Managing Partner, Healthcare at Petra Capital Partners

Nashville, TN

DF
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Why they matter

Chairs ABS Kids and sits on SUN Behavioral Health's board — a Nashville PE GP actively rolling up behavioral health platforms with a 25-year healthcare track record.

Background

David Fitzgerald is Managing Partner at Petra Capital Partners, where he leads the firm's healthcare investing practice across behavioral health, diagnostics/labs, healthcare IT, managed care, and pharma services. He has over 25 years in private equity, private credit, and venture capital, having previously served as General Partner at Richland Ventures and held market-development and acquisition roles at InformDx and THG Management Services; he holds a B.A. from Washington & Lee University.

Notable deals

  • 2016
    Petra Capital participated as existing investor in a $34M growth financing for SUN Behavioral Health, later joining its board
  • 2016
    Petra-backed New Century Hospice, which Fitzgerald's firm helped finance from founding, was sold to Curo Health Services
  • 2017
    Petra Capital Partners and MMC Health Services acquired Alternative Behavior Strategies (now ABS Kids), an ABA autism therapy platform
  • 2018
    Publicly quoted backing ABS Kids' appointment of Dr. Adam Singer as CEO to lead the company's next growth phase

Call-prep brief

David Fitzgerald — Managing Partner, Healthcare, Petra Capital Partners

Background

  • 25+ years in healthcare-focused PE, private credit, and venture capital; based in Nashville, TN
  • Prior General Partner at Richland Ventures (Southeast VC); earlier operating/BD roles at InformDx (diagnostic labs) and THG Management Services (managed care)
  • Leads Petra's healthcare vertical: behavioral health, diagnostics/labs, healthcare IT, managed care, pharma services

Current focus

  • Chairman of ABS Kids (ABA autism therapy) since Petra's 2017 acquisition
  • Board seats at SUN Behavioral Health (freestanding psych hospitals), Etairos Health (home care), Acute Behavioral Health, Urgent Team, and several other Petra portfolio companies
  • Track record of driving exits: SpecialtyCare (American Securities), US Healthworks (Dignity Health), Televox (West Corp.), Appriss (Bain Capital), Salveo Specialty Pharmacy (Optum), Clinipace (dMed Global), CareMetx (General Atlantic)

What he cares about

  • Buy-and-build economics and platform scalability in behavioral/home-based care
  • Provider supply and labor constraints as a gating factor on rollup pace
  • Clean exit paths — he favors strategics and larger PE as natural next buyers

Recent moves / sensitivities

  • Petra Funds Group took a strategic investment from Charlesbank Capital Partners (Oct 2023) and closed a $270M Growth Fund V — signals fresh capital to deploy
  • Heavy board load (10+ active seats) — bandwidth is a real constraint, be specific about time ask
  • Petra's fund size ($200-270M) may cap check size/lead capacity on larger platforms — confirm fit before assuming a lead role

Questions to ask

  1. Where does Petra's behavioral health thesis stand today — still ABA/autism and freestanding psych, or expanding into new subsectors?
  2. What check size and ownership structure does Petra typically target for a rollup platform at scale?
  3. Given his seats at ABS Kids and SUN Behavioral, does he view this opportunity as complementary or competitive with existing portfolio?

Outreach draft

Subject
Behavioral Health Rollup — Quick Diligence Call?
Hi David, I'm reaching out because of your work chairing ABS Kids and your board seat at SUN Behavioral Health — your view on scaling behavioral health platforms would be genuinely useful to us right now. We're doing diligence on a behavioral health rollup opportunity and would value 20-30 minutes to hear how you think about platform economics, provider supply constraints, and exit timing in this space, given Petra's track record here. Would you have time for a call in the next couple of weeks? Happy to work around your schedule. Best, [Your Name]

Linked companies

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