Synova Capital (“Synova”), an award-winning growth investor, is pleased to announce the sale of 4Ways to ECI Partners, a leading growth-focused, UK mid-market private equity firm. The transaction generated a return for Synova of 6x invested capital and an IRR of 75%.
Headquartered in Hertfordshire, 4Ways is a leading, rapidly growing tele-diagnostics company. 4Ways operates a full 24 hours a day, 365 days a year tech-enabled service, providing routine, out-of-hours and specialist clinical reporting on diagnostic images which help hospitals, CCGs and other healthcare providers to deliver high quality and efficient care to their patients.
Following its investment in 4Ways in 2015, Synova supported the business and its CEO, Ajay Chadha, with significant investment in talent and technology, which enabled the business to scale rapidly, continuously improve quality and to develop new service lines. Today it reports almost a million scans per annum for more than 100 healthcare sites. During Synova’s investment period 4Ways turnover more than doubled.
Synova Partner Tim Ashlin and Investment Director Zachary Tsai led the investment and exit for Synova. George Moss led ECI Partners’ investment in the business.
Ajay Chadha, CEO of 4Ways, commented: “Working with Synova over the last few years has been a real pleasure and Tim and Zac have been true partners to me and the business. Synova’s collegiate approach, experience and continuous support for investing in our people and our technology has helped us to deliver on 4Ways’ strong potential and position it well for the next exciting stage of its development.”
Tim Ashlin, Partner of Synova, commented: “I’m delighted we have been able to support 4Ways so successfully over the past three years and I’d like to thank Ajay and the team for their commitment and the huge amount of hard work they have put in. We first identified 4Ways as a rapidly growing business in a developing market two years before we formally partnered together in an off-market transaction and it has been an exciting and rewarding journey ever since. The company continues to go from strength to strength, providing a top quality service which improves the healthcare received by hundreds of thousands of patients each year. I wish Ajay and the business the very best of luck as their journey continues with ECI.”
George Moss, Partner at ECI Partners, commented: “Healthcare spend continues to increase substantially as the UK’s population ages and grows, while hospitals and health professionals are under pressure to deliver clinically excellent services efficiently and on budget. We are delighted to be able to partner with 4Ways, a company that is helping them to do this. ECI has a strong track record working with technology-enabled, growth companies and we look forward to partnering with Ajay and his team as they look to build out the business further in this very promising market.”
