Channel 3 Consulting ropes in investment to accelerate growth

Channel 3 Consulting, a London-based healthcare consultancy, has roped in an investment from private equity groups Kempen and WestBridge Capital. 

The two investors have acquired a majority stake in the business, with the balance of the shares remaining in the hands of Channel 3 Consulting’s management team. Financial terms and conditions have not been disclosed. 

The deal comes in sync with a management buyout, with the trio of John Howard, Eleanor Rollason and Lucy McLintock taking over the company’s leadership and equity stake from the firm’s original founders. 

Established in 2009, Channel 3 works with organisations across the National Health Service (NHS) and private healthcare on realising better patient outcomes, improving internal operations and delivering change. While healthcare is its main area of focus, the consulting firm also provides advisory and programme delivery services to the public and third sectors. 

“With Channel 3 we back a highly experienced management team in the buyout of a niche, high growth digital healthcare consultancy business. We are committed to supporting them with the growth of Channel 3 in the years to come,” said Sven Smeets, Managing Director of Kempen Private Markets, which was setup by Kempen in 2018 and has over €200 million in committed client capital. 

With funding secured, Channel 3 Consulting aims to double its team to 100 employees in the coming years, said chief executive John Howard. The consultancy also plans to expand its geographic coverage to include new regions in England, Scotland and Wales. 

“From a services perspective, the plan is to grow out from existing core services like digital strategy, business case development, EPR implementation and optimisation, to areas of work which have become all the more important such as remote monitoring and digital transformation. We will also expand our offerings in tech enablement across integrated care systems,” Howard said. 

Guy Davies, Managing Partner at WestBridge Capital, added: “We are delighted that Kempen is co-investing with us in Channel 3. We look forward to working with Kempen and the management team on this very exciting opportunity. We have worked together with Kempen for years on various other successful deals and we view the Kempen team as a partner in an alliance that offers room for professional, long term entrepreneurial investing.”