Ex-rainmakers of Varsity Healthcare Partners have launched firms specializing in healthcare services and technology.
Merrick Axel, a former partner at the firm, has teamed up with Dr. Pat Basu, a former managing partner there, to back healthcare companies through their Chicago private equity firm, Lincoln Liberty Capital. Axel and Basu lead a team of about 15, not including six advisory board members. Last fall they acquired platform company P&A Group, a health benefits administrator.
Meantime, former Principal Aaron Habriga, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, has founded lower-middle-market-focused STA Capital in Los Angeles. The firm backs companies generating EBITDA of up to $15 million in healthcare services, healthcare technology, business services and consumer services. Habriga was the only team member listed on STA Capital’s LinkedIn profile at press-time.
Executives at both firms could not be reached by press time to learn more about any fundraising or hiring plans.
Varsity Healthcare Partners: With a team of roughly 32 people, including an investment team of 14, Varsity Healthcare Partners acquires and makes growth equity investments in both healthcare providers and in companies that supply services and technology to providers and payers. Axel and Basu had relatively short stints there. Axel joined in 2022, Basu in 2023, the year that the firm closed its fourth flagship fund at $700 million. Both left last year to start their new firm. For his part, Habriga worked at the firm from 2017 to 2022.
The Opportunity: All three firms are chasing deals in what appears to be a healthy market. Bain & Company counted 445 private equity healthcare buyout deals worldwide in 2025, the highest number since 2021’s 515 such deals, as reported in its 2026 global healthcare private equity report. Last year’s combined deal value of $191 billion marked the highest volume in six years.
The Trend: It’s been a banner couple of years for healthcare PE start-ups, with newcomers including 3 Boomerang Capital, Cleargate Capital Partners, Richardson Capital Partners, Valspring Capital and Vetta Growth Partners. One of the most ambitious is San Francisco-based Aphias Capital, founded last year by Managing Partner Rob Wolfson, a former global head of healthcare at Miami-based buyout firm H.I.G. Capital. Aphias Capital is raising money for its Aphias Capital Fund I, targeted at $900 million, according to materials from an Orange County Employees Retirement System investment committee meeting last November.
Lincoln Liberty Bona Fides: Before joining Varsity Healthcare Partners Axel worked as a partner at Chicago-based Cressey & Company. He has served as a director at pharmaceutical consultant Beghou, behavioral health treatment provider InnerChange, healthcare education specialist Unitek Learning and animal health specialists VetCor and People, Pets & Vets. Basu earlier in his career served as a partner at Chicago Pacific Founders. Before that, Basu worked as a physician at Stanford University.
STA Capital Bona Fides: After leaving Varsity Healthcare Partners in 2022, Managing Partner Habriga went on to serve as a principal for healthcare investor Lorient Capital until last year. Early in his career Habriga served as a platoon sergeant in the US Marine Corp; the acronym STA is used by by the US Marine Corp as a shorthand for surveillance and target acquisition.