VSS Capital Partners (“VSS”), a private investment firm that targets the healthcare, education, and business services industries, announced the successful final close of VSS Structured Capital Fund IV (“VSS SC IV”) at $530 million, exceeding its target of $400 million.  The fund received strong support from existing as well as new institutional investors, including insurers, pensions, asset managers, foundations, endowments and select family offices.

“The current inflationary and recession-prone market environment bodes particularly well for structured capital funds, given the dilutive nature of many equity-only solutions that become less attractive in recessionary environments,” said Jeffrey Stevenson, Managing Partner of VSS. “Coupled with our differentiated sector focus, decades of experience and strong industry relationships, we are confident about the opportunities that lay ahead to deploy capital for this fund.”

“We are pleased to have closed VSS SC IV at the hard cap, with the opportunity to build on VSS’s legacy of top-quartile Structured Capital funds,” said Lacey Mehran, Managing Director and Head of Investor Relations at VSS. “The interest we’ve seen from investors reflects our proven ability to consistently generate attractive risk-adjusted returns across economic cycles by providing a hybrid solution to companies seeking a capital partner to facilitate their next stage of growth.”

VSS’s Structured Capital strategy represents a unique hybrid approach, providing a combination of debt and equity to growth-oriented, lower middle market companies within healthcare, education, and business services.  The strategy offers the combination of non-control junior capital with the benefits of active partnership and industry expertise.  The Structured Capital funds aim to achieve substantial and consistent risk-adjusted returns with the downside protection associated with debt and traditional mezzanine investments and the potential for upside gain associated with private equity investing.