Inflexion helps founder-run healthcare companies to provide better outcomes with proven strategies including digital enhancement, geographic expansion and M&A, often allowing the founder to take a step back and helping patients live better.
Founder-led businesses often benefit from a clear sense of direction shaped by their creators from day one. As they grow, however, there may come a time when additional funding is needed to scale, or the founder chooses to step back and wants confidence the business will continue to thrive.
“Founder-led businesses often have impressive passion, and we can support niche market leaders to sustainably scale their operations,” stresses Andrew Neville, Inflexion Partner focused on healthcare.
Inflexion’s dedicated team includes specialist investors, healthcare entrepreneurs, and former practitioners. Inflexion’s portfolio also benefits from a Healthcare Advisory Board, established in 2021 to help shape investment strategy and drive value across investments.
Healthcare has formed a core sector across Inflexion’s 25+ years’ experience in backing businesses, with over €1 billion invested in five sub-sectors across the space from its three dedicated funds offering minority or majority investment.
Lintbells The journey of pet supplements company Lintbells from local champion to global leader demonstrates how preserving core values can accelerate international growth rather than constrain it.
Proteros With the support of Inflexion as a minority investor, Proteros is scaling globally both organically and through acquisition, particularly in the US.
Tierartzt Plus Partner Germany’s largest vet chain, TPP has accelerated its growth with funding from Inflexion in 2024. The Founder and leadership team remain on board driving consolidation of its domestic market.
Lintbells
Founded in 2006 by two friends, Lintbells was built on twin pillars: a passion for improving pet health and a commitment to scientific rigor. By 2017, these values had propelled the company to become the UK’s preferred choice for joint-related pet supplements. However, the founders recognised that international expansion would require different expertise.
When Inflexion invested that year, the company was ready to accelerate its next phase of growth, particularly in the US. “You can get your money anywhere,” Founder Dr. John Howie explains, “but we wanted a partner with the expertise and people to help us scale without compromising what made Lintbells special.”
The subsequent growth journey was carefully orchestrated to maintain cultural continuity through a leadership transition. Shortly after Inflexion’s investment, a new Chair was appointed alongside Fiona Hope as CCO. Fiona’s marketing expertise from companies like Coca-Cola proved invaluable, but her cultural alignment was equally important as she transitioned to CEO in 2022, allowing John to step back from day-to-day operations.
“I arrived at a business with a very strong core – a trusted product, a dedicated team of under 70 people, and an open, warm culture driven by integrity and critical thinking,” Fiona recalls.
Lintbells’ expansion into the US market and its acquisition of Walkin’ Pets, a specialist in mobility aids, was handled thoughtfully. Rather than imposing Lintbells’ practices onto the acquired company, leadership sought complementary cultural elements that could strengthen both organisations.
“We moved forward in a well thought-through way to drive a level of scale I’d not have imagined when I founded it,” John says, “but we never lost sight of why we started the company.”
This focus on cultural continuity created value throughout the partnership. In 2024, Lintbells was acquired by US-based pet company Vetnique, generating a 5.5x return for Inflexion. The cultural alignment with the acquirer made the transition remarkably smooth. “Vetnique’s ethos mirrored our own – science-backed products and a strong focus on doing things the right way,” John explains.
Proteros
Proteros is a specialist in structural biology which has created a cutting-edge platform recognised globally by both large pharma and biotechs as capable of unlocking the most technically challenging drug targets. Munich-based Proteros supports many of the world’s top 20 largest pharmaceutical companies and over 200 pharma and biotech partners in the US, Europe and Japan to reach the right results and accelerate their overall research timelines, helping them to lead optimisation and clinical programmes.
The firm was founded in 2000 by Dr Torsten Neuefeind (CEO) and Nobel Laureate Prof. R Huber, and today boasts leading technologies that enable users to map the shape of a drug target with a high degree of precision.
Proteros have pioneered much of the science in their field and learned how to industrialise the process of producing structural biology images.
This, according to Torsten, is a case of knowledge and experience: “Protein structures matter for improving identification of drugs. We provide a picture of the key and the lock, with our experience meaning we now have a critical mass of more than 1,000 structures a year.”
The business started in Germany, then entered wider Europe, and now over 50% of its business comes from the US. Extending this further and getting closer to the customers is a big part of the firm’s strategy and work with Inflexion.
With Inflexion’s support, Proteros is focusing on operational improvement topics spanning technology stack, finance function and sales and marketing approach. The firm is also drawing on Inflexion’s proven expertise in healthcare and commercial strategy to further strengthen its overall value proposition for its blue-chip customer base.
Over the summer, the firm announced collaboration with Enamine and Zuse Institute Berlin to team up jointly with Qanat Pharma to accelerate the discovery of new cancer treatments. By combining their expertise in drug design, data science and chemistry, the four firms aim to fast-track the early stages of drug development.
Inflexion’s Team have supported the business with recent strong leadership hires. These include a CFO, COO, Chief Scientic Officer and Chief Growth Officer.
Inflexion’s Value Acceleration team have worked with Proteros on a number of projects including sales transparency and optimisation, customer data, while Inflexion’s Digital Team have supported to review AI options for the business.
Proteros is also working closely with Inflexion to review new growth opportunities, specifically in the US, including looking at M&A
Tierarzt Plus Partner
Tierarzt Plus Partner (TPP) is Germany’s largest group of veterinary practices. Founded in 2018, it has over 100 vet practices across Germany and c. 1,700 employees. The company partners with local veterinarians to offer leading animal healthcare services, mainly for small animals, and supports them with comprehensive training, best industry practices and significant technology investments. TPP’s success is predicated on the well-being of both employees and animals, ensuring that growth never comes at the expense of the company’s founding principles.
The veterinary care market in Germany remains fragmented with considerable scope for further consolidation and growth, providing strong ongoing potential for TPP’s continued growth.
In July 2024, the founders of TPP welcomed Inflexion as an investor to support this, with the Founder and senior management team staying on board. This collaboration has already helped accelerate TPP’s expansion while preserving the company’s distinctive culture and ethos. Inflexion is using its significant industry experience gleaned through investments in Medivet, Village Vets and Lintbells to drive further growth of the business. In particular, Inflexion will support further investment in digitisation of the business, training and the expansion of its vet practice network across Germany both through acquisitions and the opening of new greenfield sites.
Since the investment, TPP has already announced the opening of 10 new practices and opened 3 greenfield sites.
TPP’s admirable aim to close regional supply gaps and address structural challenges in the veterinary sector means it is offering more practices the opportunity to join its community. This is supported by scaling key initiatives that enhance its network, including continued investment in TPP’s Academy for training and development, the roll-out of modern equipment across practices to maintain clinical excellence, and further digitalisation to improve efficiency and customer experience.
Throughout its growth, TPP’s leadership remains unchanged, with Founders and Managing Directors Oliver Nellen and Fabian Kröll alongside the original family investors continuing to co-own and actively manage the business.
Since investment, Inflexion has accelerated TPP’s growth through a disciplined M&A programme including nine acquisitions in FY25 adding €3.8m EBITDA. The firm has built a scalable talent platform, launching the TPP Academy, expanding international vet sourcing, and strengthening central HR. Inflexion has also driven TPP’s digital transformation with the launch of the TPP app and expansion of “Pfotendoctor” online services, enhancing customer engagement and enabling cross-sell — positioning the business to capture share in the €5bn German veterinary market.
