The impact investor’s recently launched inclusive growth strategy focuses on businesses that are delivering positive outcomes for vulnerable people in the UK.
Bridges Fund Management’s inclusive growth fund has taken a majority stake in Alina Homecare, a UK care provider which helps vulnerable elderly people live independently at home. The firm declined to disclose any financial details about the investment.
The London-based impact investor first invested in Alina Homecare in 2014, via an earlier private equity fund. This time round, Bridges is taking a majority stake in Alina alongside its management team, led by CEO James Deeley.
The commitment to Alina Homecare is the first new investment by the Bridges Inclusive Growth fund, which was launched in December to support growth businesses that are delivering measurable social outcomes for vulnerable groups in the UK, Impact Investor reported exclusively at the time.
“As a specialist investor in social inclusion, we’re looking to invest between £5m (€5.8m) and £20m of equity into growing businesses that deliver positive measurable outcomes to those that need them the most. Alina is a great fit for this. It is a well-established leader in the delivery of high-quality homecare to elderly individuals, with strong recent growth underpinned by the positive outcomes it delivers – supporting better lives for its customers by helping them continue to live at home independently,” Emma Thorne, partner and head of Bridges Inclusive Growth, told Impact Investor.
Last year, the Alina Homecare delivered 1.1 million hours of care to more than 1,300 people across the south of England last year. It employs all of its workers directly, which it said had contributed to a “motivated workforce” and high ratings from the Care Quality Commission for its branches.
Ageing population
With a rapidly ageing population, a rise in chronic health conditions and a social care system that’s already under severe pressure due to a lack of workers, demand for high-quality care at home is set to increase strongly in the future in the UK. The number of people aged 85 and over is forecast to almost double to 3.3 million in 2047, from 1.7 million in 2022, according to the British Geriatrics Society.
“Bridges have been a great partner for Alina over the years, and we are delighted to be partnering with the inclusive growth team for the next phase of our growth journey. It will allow us to maintain our emphasis on quality of care and quality of employment –which in turn help us to attract new clients and support the continued commercial growth of the business. We look forward to achieving further growth and impact in the coming years,” said Deeley of Alina Homecare.
“The private homecare market is certainly an attractive one, given the strong demographic drivers, the fact that homecare can be a more attractive and affordable option for families than residential care, and the increasing difficulty of accessing state provision. Alina will be our sole investment in this specific area, with plans to scale nationally. More widely, the health and social care sector will continue to be a major focus for our inclusive growth strategy going forward, and we have substantial dry powder to invest in the coming months,” Thorne added.
