{"id":149314,"date":"2026-07-30T06:47:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/149314\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T06:47:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:47:29","slug":"priveq-capital-funds-wins-2026-pe-regional-impact-award-central-canada-ontario-for-integracare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/149314\/","title":{"rendered":"PRIVEQ Capital Funds Wins 2026 PE Regional Impact Award, Central Canada (Ontario), for Integracare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Based in Toronto, Integracare Inc.<\/a> was founded in 1990 with the goal of providing private nursing and home care services that allow people to live with dignity and comfort in their own homes. Over the following decades, the company evolved from a small operation into one of the city\u2019s largest independent home care providers.<\/p>\n

At the same time, PRIVEQ Capital Funds<\/a> was looking to enter the home care sector. PRIVEQ saw powerful demographic trends reshaping the industry. Canada\u2019s aging population, combined with the reality that more than 95 per cent of people prefer to recover or age at home rather than in hospitals or long-term care facilities, pointed to growing demand for home-based care services for years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also saw an industry that was highly fragmented and ripe for consolidation,\u201d says Brad Ashley, managing partner at PRIVEQ. \u201cThere were numerous smaller operators across the market, creating an opportunity to build a larger platform through acquisition. We had been tracking Integracare for years and viewed it as the ideal foundation for that strategy. The vision was to strengthen its premium service offering and expand into other parts of Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n

PRIVEQ completed its acquisition of Integracare in 2016. The transaction, however, presented an immediate challenge. \u201cOur approach has always been to back strong management teams and partner with them as they build their businesses,\u201d says Lee Grunberg, partner at PRIVEQ. \u201cIn this case, we needed to think differently because Integracare\u2019s founders were preparing to retire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having spent the previous three years searching for health care services investments for PRIVEQ, Grunberg emerged as the natural choice to lead the company into its next chapter. He stepped in as interim president and CEO, and quickly made a bold decision that would help shape Integracare\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

Investing in Infrastructure Before Expansion<\/p>\n

Two months after taking the helm, Grunberg came to an unavoidable conclusion: if Integracare was going to achieve its long-term ambitions, it would first need to invest heavily in its foundations. \u201cI remember calling Brad and telling him that the investments we needed to make would cut EBITDA in half,\u201d says Grunberg. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have an HR department. We didn\u2019t have a finance department. We didn\u2019t have the systems required to support the kind of business we wanted to build. We knew we had to take a step backward before we could move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than prioritize short-term profitability, PRIVEQ supported the plan. Integracare hired its first HR director within three months and its first finance director within six. The company also implemented AlayaCare, a cloud-based platform that digitized scheduling, client records and other administrative functions, creating the operational infrastructure needed to support a larger organization.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Grunberg introduced a philosophy he called \u201cfind, win, keep, lift,\u201d designed to make Integracare an employer of choice in an industry often challenged by caregiver shortages and high turnover. The company committed to caregiver development, offering free education, competitive compensation and financial support for health benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those investments proved invaluable when the pandemic struck in early 2020. Almost overnight, Integracare had to redesign its entire operating model. Caregivers who previously moved between multiple clients could no longer do so because of the risk of cross-contamination. Care plans had to be rewritten and personal protective equipment sourced and delivered across the organization.<\/p>\n

By the summer of 2020, the company had stabilized its core home care operations and identified an unexpected opportunity. Integracare launched a corporate nursing division that provided workplace COVID-19 testing and vaccination services for organizations such as Canada Post, Scotiabank and Aritzia. Within a year, the new division was a huge success. \u201cThere was tremendous uncertainty during that period, and Lee found opportunities where others might not have,\u201d says Ashley. \u201cWithout the decisions he and his team made during those early months of the pandemic, I\u2019m not sure where the business would be today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The success of the corporate nursing division also generated capital that allowed Integracare to pursue the consolidation strategy envisioned at the time of acquisition. Working with PRIVEQ and a new investor (Cairn Merchant Partners<\/a>), Grunberg completed acquisitions of several companies including Living Assistance Services and Eldercare Home Health<\/a>, expanding Integracare\u2019s presence across the home care sector and positioning it for its next phase of development.<\/p>\n

A People-First Model Goes National<\/p>\n

That next phase began in October 2025, when Integracare was acquired by Frontline Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm that saw an opportunity to replicate the company\u2019s model across Canada.<\/p>\n

The results achieved under PRIVEQ\u2019s ownership made that vision compelling. When PRIVEQ acquired the business in 2016, Integracare employed 70 people. Today, the company has more than 500 employees, an increase of over 700 per cent. Integracare has also built one of the most diverse workplace cultures in the sector: women hold five of the company\u2019s seven senior management positions and the majority of its leadership identify as visible minorities. The company has also been recognized by Great Place to Work Canada as one of the country\u2019s Best Workplaces for Inclusion and Best Workplaces for Women. Perhaps most notably, Integracare has maintained caregiver turnover below 20 per cent in an industry where turnover rates often approach 80 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntegracare was a perfect example of the PRIVEQ approach in action,\u201d says Ashley. \u201cThe exceptional employee retention and the recognition the company received all reinforced our belief that strong financial results come from investing in people and operating with compassion. That philosophy has always been a key cornerstone of how we build businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The financial results were equally impressive. After making the deliberate decision to cut EBITDA in half during the first year to invest in people and systems, Integracare increased EBITDA by more than 800 per cent during PRIVEQ\u2019s ownership period. That performance earned the firm the PE Regional Impact Award, Central Canada\u2014Ontario, sponsored by KALOS.<\/p>\n

With Grunberg remaining CEO following the transaction, he is now focused on nationwide expansion. \u201cWhen I stepped into the role, I thought it would be temporary,\u201d he says. \u201cTen years later, I\u2019m still here because I fell in love with being an operator and with what this company represents. We took a significant risk in those early years, and Brad had the trust and long-term vision to support it. Those investments created the foundation for everything that followed, and I\u2019m excited about where the company goes next.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Based in Toronto, Integracare Inc. was founded in 1990 with the goal of providing private nursing and home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48275,17,46396,36615,48276,48277,46398,46399,48278,46402,1404,48279,46403],"class_list":["post-149314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-brad-ashley","tag-canada","tag-cvca-awards","tag-health-care-services","tag-home-care","tag-integracare","tag-invest-canada-2026","tag-kalos","tag-lee-grunberg","tag-pe-regional-impact-award","tag-private-equity","tag-priveq-capital-funds","tag-regional-impact-award"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}