SUMMIT PARTNERS / VAM INVESTMENTS take majority stake in DENTALPRO

Summit Partners acquired a majority stake in DentalPro, the Italian network of dental clinics, in a growth equity investment announced on 2 April 2015. Existing shareholder VAM Investments reinvested in the transaction, as did founder and chief executive Michel Cohen. VAM Investments, founded by Ennio Valerio Boccardi and Marco Piana, had invested its principals' capital alongside selected co-investors since 2011 and had backed DentalPro from its early years. At the time of the deal, DentalPro ran 30 full-service clinics across Italy, most of them in shopping centres, with more than 200 dentists in its network, after being founded in 2010 by Cohen with Samuele Baruch and Paolo Tonveronachi. Marco Piana said the company had grown from a start-up into a leading player in under five years. Summit Partners was to support the continued expansion of the network, adding dentists and opening new locations to reach more patients. Thomas Tarnowski, a principal at the firm, and Scott Collins, a managing director, both joined the DentalPro board, where Cohen and Piana also remained. Collins pointed to Summit's experience in clinician-based healthcare organisations, and to VAM's significant reinvestment as a sign of commitment to the company's growth.