Houlihan Lokey Advises Knox Lane
Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Knox Lane, a growth-oriented investment firm, has acquired All Star Healthcare Solutions (All Star), a premier, full-service healthcare staffing firm focused exclusively on the locum tenens market. The transaction closed on May 1, 2024.
Based in San Francisco, Knox Lane is a growth-oriented investment firm that comprises a team of accomplished investors and operators with a shared work history and a strong track record of partnering with leading companies to accelerate transformational growth. Knox Lane employs an investor-operator mindset and seeks to provide support across a number of business components, including human capital, brand management, end-to-end digital transformation, sourcing, supply chain and logistics, strategic acquisitions, and business development.
Based in Florida, All Star is a top-10 specialty-focused provider of locum tenens placement opportunities for physicians and advanced practitioners and is one of the fastest-growing locum tenens firms in the U.S. All Star’s blue-chip customer base includes more than 150 unique hospital systems and over 400 individual healthcare facilities, including some of the top medical institutions in the country. Widely recognized for its differentiated “red carpet” service and support for both providers and clients, All Star’s specialty-focused production teams deliver diverse coverage, deep internal knowledge, and provider depth across all significant subspecialties.
All Star’s founders and management team will reinvest alongside Knox Lane and continue to own a significant minority stake in the company going forward. The partnership will support the company’s next phase of growth, both organically and through strategic acquisitions, and will drive continued investment in technology throughout the organization as well as continued expansion of All Star’s consultant base, direct sales force, and specialty-focused production teams.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Knox Lane to build on the momentum across our business and enter our next chapter of growth,” said Ken Bernstein, Chief Executive Officer and President at All Star. “We look forward to leveraging Knox Lane’s significant and direct expertise in the sector and operational resources to build on our strong foundation and capitalize on the many organic and strategic growth opportunities ahead.”
Shamik Patel, Partner at Knox Lane, and Brent Gunderson, Managing Director at Knox Lane, commented, “All Star is a well-known leader in the healthcare staffing industry, and its robust foundational infrastructure, top-tier services, and talented professionals have uniquely enabled the company to outperform the broader market. All Star is well positioned to capitalize on the long-term market tailwinds as the demand for locum tenens solutions continues to rise, and we look forward to leveraging our past experience to support Ken and the entire All Star team in scaling and growing the business.”
Keith Shattuck, Craig Shattuck, and Matt Young, Co-Founders of All Star, added, “This marks an exciting milestone for All Star. Over the past two decades, the talented management team has established a strong track record and reputation as a trusted business in the industry known for delivering differentiated solutions for clients. With Knox Lane’s partnership, All Star is even better positioned for continued scale and success in the future.”
“We are excited to welcome the All Star team to the Knox Lane family,” said John Bailey, Managing Partner at Knox Lane. “All Star has a deeply experienced management team with a proven, consistent track record of growth, and we are pleased to partner with another high-quality, founder-owned business. We look forward to working with All Star’s exceptional team and leveraging our direct sector experience, operational resources, and proven value-creation playbook to further advance the company’s leadership position.”
Houlihan Lokey served as the financial advisor to Knox Lane.
Houlihan Lokey’s Human Capital Management (HCM) team is among the most active M&A advisors in the market, having closed 25 HCM transactions since 2021. This most recent transaction further strengthens Houlihan Lokey’s leadership in the business services universe and highlights continued momentum and leadership in the HCM sector, which includes staffing, recruitment, VMS, MSP, RPO, talent management, and PEO.
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