Through its investment in Dundee-based Spring & Sprout, Huron Capital Partners in Detroit seeks to build the largest dental support organization that exclusively serves pediatric and orthodontic specialty dental practices in the U.S.
After studying the industry’s different segments — this is Huron Capital’s third investment in the dental arena — the organization identified pediatric dental as a promising opportunity, says Nick Barker, a Huron Capital partner.
“(Pediatric dental) is an underserved market,” Barker says. “There’s a dynamic where if you have kids, you would only send them to a pediatric doctor — you wouldn’t send them to an internal medicine doctor. However, there’s not as much of an appreciation of the existence of pediatric dental specialists, so we’re looking to capitalize on this unmet demand in the market.”
To get there, Huron Capital Partners has invested, and will continue to invest in Spring & Sprout, owned by Michael Schwartz, former CEO of Corner Dental, a support organization working with general dentistry practices in Ohio. The company, which provides practice support services to dental specialists in pediatric dentistry and orthodontics, will initially launch in Ohio, with plans to expand its presence through the Midwest and into the South.
“The idea is to develop affiliations with as many pediatric dental and orthodontic practices as we can in our region, which I would define as Michigan through Texas,” Barker says.
According to Schwartz — who formed Spring & Sprout along with Huron Capital, Mick Janness, and Jim Usdan — the dental support organization has assembled a team “with a strong pipeline of growth opportunities, and we are thrilled to have access to the financial and operational resources of Huron Capital at our disposal to achieve our strategic goals.”
