Cascade Healthcare Services

Cherry Tree Advises Cascade Healthcare Services on its Sale to Seaside Equity Partners

“The Cherry Tree team provided valuable guidance and counsel during both the planning phase and the execution phase of our process. They ran a competitive sale process that resulted in finding the best partner and transaction for Cascade. Their hard work, expertise and leadership were integral to our outcome and their communication during the process allowed us to be informed on the key issues and able to make decisions at the right time.”

— Paul Regalia, President of Cascade Healthcare Services

INDUSTRIES:
Healthcare, Training

DESCRIPTION:
Technology-Enabled Provider of Healthcare Certifications and Continuing Education

LOCATION:
Seattle, WA

TRANSACTION TYPE:
Majority Recapitalization

Overview

In December 2021, Cascade Healthcare Services (Cascade) was acquired by Seaside Equity Partners from majority owner Evolution Capital Partners. Cascade is a leading provider of technology-enabled training service and continuing education to healthcare professionals. Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Seattle, Cascade provides required certification training services to more than 70,000 healthcare professionals annually throughout the Pacific Northwest and California.

“The Cascade team has built an excellent business serving the annual education and certification needs of healthcare organizations and professionals. We are looking forward to making strides in driving customer satisfaction through continual investment in Cascade’s offerings and acquiring complementary service and content providers throughout the United States,” said Andrew Thompson, Managing Director of Seaside Equity.

Paul Regalia, President and founder of Cascade Healthcare Services, said, “The Seaside Equity team shares in our passion for saving lives through world class training. We are thrilled to be partnering with Seaside as we look toward the next chapter of growth for Cascade, while delivering best of breed training solutions to our customers and instructors in a safe and supportive way. The pandemic has given us the opportunity to better understand our importance in the communities that we serve, and we know that our collaboration with Seaside will enable us to be an even more robust solution and partner to our clients.”

“Cascade has spent several years refining its delivery methods and technology platform while consistently keeping their end customers at the top of mind. We look forward to building out ancillary content areas and accelerating investments in technology to allow the Company to continue innovating and scaling for long-term success,” said Hiral Pithadia, Principal at Seaside Equity.

Cherry Tree’s Role

Cherry Tree was engaged to assist the Cascade shareholders in identifying the best partner to help Cascade achieve its next phase of growth through a sale of the business. Cherry Tree’s role included introductions and discussions with numerous potential partners, soliciting proposals, negotiating terms, supporting due diligence, and facilitating the closing of a transaction. It was especially important to the shareholders and management team that the process was well planned and efficiently executed, to not disrupt the core business operations.

About Cascade Healthcare Services

Cascade Healthcare Services is a leading provider of continuing education and training services to healthcare professionals throughout the Western U.S. The Company partners with leading medical research organizations, including the American Heart Association, Emergency Nurses Association, American Red Cross and American Academy of Pediatrics to provide best-in-class instruction to tens of thousands of students annually. Cascade maintains its leading market position through deep, long-term relationships with hospital systems and public sector enterprises in the Pacific Northwest and California. For more information, please visit: www.cascadetraining.com.

About Seaside Equity Partners

Seaside Equity Partners is a growth-oriented and operationally focused private equity firm based in San Diego, CA. The firm seeks to provide capital, resources and strategic support to leading mission critical services businesses that are headquartered in the Western United States. Seaside is currently investing out of Fund I, a $160 million investment vehicle that closed in February 2021, which focuses on partnering with founder, family, and entrepreneur-owned businesses. For more information, please visit: www.seasideequity.com.

About Cherry Tree & Associates

Cherry Tree & Associates is a private investment banking firm headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1980, it specializes in M&A transactions for both buyers and sellers of middle market companies. Additionally, it conducts private placements for high quality, entrepreneurially managed growth companies, provides strategic advisory services for CEOs and boards of directors, and prepares fairness opinions and other valuation services. For more information, please visit: www.cherrytree.com.