Pharos Capital to Acquire Vantage Outsourcing, Build New Ophthalmology Services Platform

Private equity film Pharos Capital Group announced it has acquired Vantage Outsourcing, a cataract surgical service provider. 

Co-founder and CEO Ann Deters and President Chris Swing will retain a minority stake in the company. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Effingham, Illinois, Vantage provides logistics support services for cataract and other ophthalmologic procedures. It helps hospitals, surgery centers, and physicians provide quality cataract services to their communities in a cost-effective and efficient way by enabling surgical facilities to deploy cataract surgery equipment, instrumentation, disposables, and other supplies needed for cataract surgery. Vantage is active across more than 20 states, particularly in rural locations, throughout the Central, Midwest, and Southeast U.S. 

“Pharos has identified surgical support services for ophthalmology and other surgical specialties as a key area of interest for investment, with attractive demographic trends and a growing opportunity to improve outcomes for both patients and providers," Joel Goldberg, a Partner at Pharos, said in a company news release. "There is a marked need for such services in rural areas, where long travel distances are an obstacle and access to care is often insufficient. We are excited to work with Vantage, which supports providers and offers vital services in areas that would otherwise go unserved.” 

Pharos is partnering with industry veteran Bradley Hill to build the company into a broad surgical support services platform through targeted acquisitions and organic growth. Mr. Hill will serve as Chief Executive Officer of Vantage. He was previously Chief Commercial Officer at RazorMetrics, a SaaS-based platform that increases transparency in prescription drug costs by delivering cost information to prescribing physicians. Earlier, he was president of Peak Health Solutions and held senior positions at a number of healthcare-related revenue cycle management and claims advisory companies.

Bob Crants, Founding Partner at Pharos, commented, “We are delighted to be working with Brad to help the platform build a powerful surgical support services network supporting a broad array of provider specialties. We will benefit from his background and expertise as we refine and build upon Vantage’s proven model of contracting with clients to eliminate their inventory and equipment risk, thus allowing physicians and hospital partners to focus exclusively on providing high quality surgical services.”  

This marks the first investment from Pharos’s latest flagship fund, Pharos Capital Partners IV, LP, investing alongside its parallel fund, Pharos Capital Partners IV-A, L.P., a licensed Rural Business Investment Company.