ABA Auction Block Fills as a Family Office Buys InBloom

A Family Office Takes the Biggest Deal

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA – The largest autism therapy deal of 2026 so far did not go to a private equity fund. Elysium Management, the family office of Apollo Global Management co-founder and former CEO Leon Black, acquired InBloom Autism Services for $75 million, Axios reported in January. The price worked out to a multiple of approximately 15 times EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).

The seller, Waltham, Massachusetts-based Webster Equity Partners, had held InBloom since 2018. Calex Partners, the New York M&A advisory firm, served as InBloom’s exclusive financial advisor; Calex says it has advised on 22 autism transactions, a list that includes Nautic Partners’ purchase of Proud Moments ABA and the sale of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders back to an investor group involving founder Doreen Granpeesheh.

The hold period tells its own story. Webster’s 7-year stay nearly doubled the 3.8-year median for PE-backed autism transactions that The Braff Group presented at the Autism Investor Summit East, a stretch shaped by the pandemic and by the 2023 downturn in which Braff’s tracking showed deal volume falling by half. InBloom kept building through it. The company grew to more than two dozen learning centers across seven states, all opened de novo rather than acquired, and announced three new Connecticut clinics the same week the sale surfaced.

At the reported multiple, the price implies EBITDA in the neighborhood of $5 million, smaller than several of the platforms now coming to market. That makes the 15x figure the more consequential number. Mid-to-high-teens multiples have held for well-run autism platforms, according to industry sources, and Brentwood Capital Advisors managing director Dan Beuerlein has said publicly that autism platforms command the highest valuations in behavioral health.

What the Buyer Profile Changes

Elysium is not a typical sponsor. Founded in 1992, the New York single-family office manages Black’s personal capital across private equity, real estate and public markets. It raises no outside funds, so there is no fund life to manage and no limited partners waiting on distributions.

That structure matters more in ABA than in most sectors, because the fund clock is what has driven the industry’s churn. The roll-up wave of 2017 to 2020 was financed by funds now past their hold windows. Sponsors now need to deploy aging dry powder and return capital to limited partners after several slow quarters. An owner without a fund deadline can ride out rate cuts, payer disputes and staffing shortages in ways a sponsor approaching year five cannot.

A family office paying 15x is a different signal than a fund paying 15x: the clock that forces the next sale never starts.

Whether more family offices follow is an open question. What is documented is that the sector’s biggest deal of the year closed without a traditional sponsor on the buy side, and that the asset went to a buyer with no obligation to sell on a schedule.

Apara Opens the Mid-2026 Queue

Apara Autism Centers is the newest name on the block. The Havencrest Capital Management-backed provider has reportedly hit the auction market, with Piper Sandler running the process. Axios broke news of the planned sale on May 29. Apara lists 17 locations across Texas, Missouri, Nebraska and New Mexico.

The auction is the next chapter of a story BreakingNewsABA reported in April, when Havencrest and Apara were pressing a Texas-focused growth push. Former CEO Tyler Moore founded the company in 2019 in partnership with Havencrest; Kyle Seco has led it as president and CEO since late 2023. Apara grew through de novo openings and three add-ons: Behavior Pioneers in 2021, then Autism Learning Collaborative and the Missouri operations of Early Autism Services in early 2023. The Havencrest partnership is now in its seventh year, well past the sector’s median hold.

The Queue Behind Apara

Apara is not selling into an empty market. 360 Behavioral Health, the California provider built on the California Psychcare and Behavior Respite in Action brands, is positioning for a sale with an estimated $30 million in EBITDA. It is represented by Calex, the same firm that ran the InBloom process.

Mosaic Pediatric Therapy, the Charlotte-based provider serving North Carolina and Virginia with approximately $26 million in annual revenue, is returning to market through Harris Williams after a previous process was pulled. Relaunched sales are a familiar sequence from the 2023 and 2024 trough, when several processes were quietly shelved. Butterfly Effects, the Deerfield Beach, Florida provider that Moran Capital Partners has held for roughly 11 years, generates about $20 million in EBITDA and is rumored to have engaged TripleTree. Bierman Autism Centers has engaged Cain Brothers to explore a sale, Axios reported in March.

Taken together, the names in the queue represent far more earnings than anything that has traded in 2026. 360’s estimated $30 million in EBITDA alone is roughly six times what the InBloom price implies. The queue is a test of whether buyers, sponsors or otherwise, will pay platform multiples for platform-sized assets, or whether this year’s pattern of small deals holds.

Closed Deals Still Skew Small

The 2026 tally so far is dominated by tuck-ins. LEARN Behavioral closed its purchase of Little Leaves Behavioral Services from FullBloom on May 11, adding 18 center-based programs in Maryland, Virginia and Florida in its third disclosed acquisition of the year. Momentum Health Partners, a new PE firm spun out of Phoenix real estate investor MCR Companies, launched in March by acquiring Advanced Autism Center for Treatment, an Arizona and Montana provider. Center for Social Dynamics, backed by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, added New Mexico’s Behavior Change Institute in February.

Demand is not the constraint. Mertz Taggart counted 12 autism and IDD (intellectual and developmental disabilities) transactions in Q1 2025, the sector’s highest quarterly volume since 2021 and a 71% increase year over year, and managing partner Kevin Taggart has described sales of ABA organizations as especially competitive. Andre Ulloa of M&A Healthcare Advisors told Levin Associates that mature platforms are now bolting on acquisitions after the heavy consolidation of five years ago.

“Autism M&A is booming because patient populations are growing.” – Andre Ulloa, Founder and Managing Director, M&A Healthcare Advisors (2025)

What has been missing is the platform trade. Apara’s Piper Sandler process is under way, 360 and Mosaic are in the market behind it, and Bierman’s exploration surfaced in March. Each one that signs will answer the question the InBloom sale raised: whether a family office paying $75 million was a one-off, or the start of a wider buyer pool. The first answer will come from the Apara auction now in progress.

AT A GLANCE

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