River Cities Capital Funds Completes Majority Growth Capital Investment in Carolina Partners in Mental HealthCare and Appoints New CEO

River Cities Capital Funds has closed a recapitalization transaction and growth capital partnership with the managed services organization associated with Carolina Partners in Mental HealthCare, PLLC (“CPMH” or “the Company”). With over 120 mental health professionals, CPMH is the leading provider of outpatient mental and behavioral healthcare services across North Carolina. In conjunction with the closing Jeff Williams will become the Company’s CEO.

RCCF is partnering with CPMH’s management team and clinicians to aggressively grow the Company’s clinical footprint across North Carolina and beyond. The investment will accelerate the Company’s recruitment efforts for talented psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and therapists and enable the acquisition of clinically distinguished psychiatric practices. RCCF’s and CPMH’s joint mission is to build the market’s leading outpatient behavioral healthcare platform, expanding access to critical mental and behavioral healthcare services, which have significant downstream cost savings to the Company’s payor partners and the healthcare system more broadly. As an early-adopter of tele-health and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for treatment-resistant depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, CPMH has a track record of being an innovative care provider, in addition to being a vital research development partner for clinical trials to the pharmaceutical industry.

“The clinicians of CPMH are tremendously excited about our growth partnership with RCCF. River Cities brings deep behavioral healthcare category knowledge, a demonstrated track record of success in healthcare services, a commitment to patient-centered practice growth, and a high level of enthusiasm to our efforts to expand CPMH’s clinical footprint throughout the communities of North Carolina and beyond,” said Stan Monroe, co-founder of CPMH.

Jeff Williams will to lead the Company’s next phase of growth as CEO. Prior to joining CPMH, Jeff was founder and CEO of Clinipace Worldwide, a technology-enabled clinical research organization (CRO), building it into one of the top 15 CROs in the world.

“Mental health has become a front and center issue in both our national landscape and within our nation’s healthcare system. Depression is the single biggest cause of production-loss in the American work place and by 2030 depression is expected to be one of the top three causes of death in America. CPMH’s services enable people to live healthier and more productive lives while saving our healthcare system millions of dollars in the process. I can’t think of a better place to be, nor a more important mission, and I’m excited to join the team,” said Williams. “CPMH is experiencing tremendous demand and growth as payers and large in-patient providers continue to demand more access to higher quality outpatient behavioral healthcare partners. It is also my privilege to work with the experienced team at River Cities, who recognize the importance of this endeavor.”

“With a history of providing services in North Carolina going back to 1994, growing to become one of the largest mental healthcare providers in the country, CPMH represents a unique combination of best-in-class clinical quality and relative scale in a significantly fragmented market,” said Patrick Dunnigan, Principal at RCCF. “RCCF has long understood the importance of behavioral healthcare in the shift to value-based care and to solving our nation’s broader healthcare problems. This investment will enable CPMH to continue to attract and support high-caliber clinicians to expand access to treatment through new site openings and growth within existing sites. We look forward to building a leading behavioral health organization in the southeast,” said Dan Fleming, Managing Director at RCCF. Both Dunnigan and Fleming will join the board of the newly formed holding company.

McDermott, Will & Emery LLP provided legal counsel to RCCF and Wyrick, Robbins, Yates, and Ponton LLP provided legal counsel to CPMH.