Cornell Capital and Trilantic North America to Acquire Fastaff and U.S. Nursing

New York, NY—Cornell Capital LLC (“Cornell Capital”) and Trilantic North America, two leading private investment firms, today announced that they have agreed to acquire Fastaff Travel Nursing^® (“Fastaff”) and U.S. Nursing Corporation^® (“U.S. Nursing”).
This acquisition is part of a broader effort by Cornell Capital and Trilantic North America to build a leading tech-enabled platform for healthcare staffing, following three other recently announced acquisitions in the space: trustaff Management, Inc. (“trustaff”), a leading provider of traditional travel nurse and allied healthcare staffing services; CardioSolution, a managed services offering providing cardiologists and support personnel to hospitals; and Stella.ai, Inc. (“Stella”), an AI-driven online marketplace for employers and job seekers that brings cutting-edge technology expertise to the staffing sector. With the addition of Fastaff and U.S. Nursing, the combined company will create an industry-first platform, leveraging data science and automation to meet client needs across traditional nurse staffing, rapid response, strike preparedness and job action services to accelerate growth.
Founded in 1989, Fastaff and U.S. Nursing have provided hospitals with staffing solutions for more than three decades. Fastaff pioneered the practice of Rapid Response℠ travel nurse staffing and has since grown to become the leading provider of temporary nurses to help hospitals provide continuous, high-quality patient care in urgent and crucial situations nationwide. U.S. Nursing is the largest provider of strike preparedness and job action staffing services for hospitals with unionized workforces. Together, Fastaff and U.S. Nursing partner with many of the nation’s largest and most prestigious healthcare facilities, as well as small community hospitals, using a scalable, centralized infrastructure and shared technology.
“We are excited to add Fastaff and U.S. Nursing to further diversify our innovative healthcare staffing platform, whose enhanced technology and AI will help drive future growth,” said Stephen Trevor, Partner of Cornell Capital, and Jeremy Lynch, Partner of Trilantic North America. “We have been impressed by the performance of Fastaff and U.S. Nursing for their health system customers both prior to and during the global pandemic. With each company’s track record of execution and deep hospital relationships, we look forward to partnering together as we continue to build an industry-leading organization and grow this platform organically, geographically and through additional acquisitions.”
Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. (“THL”), current owners of Fastaff and U.S. Nursing, will remain investors in the combined company.
“We invested in Fastaff and U.S. Nursing in 2015 with a thesis behind the increasingly mission-critical nature of their urgent and crucial staffing services to their hospital partners,” said Megan Preiner, Managing Director at THL. “During the global pandemic, the importance of these services has only been amplified, and these two brands have been able to consistently deliver nurses to their customers during these times of unprecedented demand. We are excited to remain partnered with the Fastaff and U.S. Nursing teams in this next evolution as the combined new entity will allow for continued efficiency and automation of the nurse staffing experience for their customers.”
“For more than three decades, Fastaff has been a premier provider of Rapid Response℠ travel nurse staffing, and U.S. Nursing has been the industry leader in comprehensive job action consulting and staffing solutions,” said Bart Valdez, Fastaff and U.S. Nursing CEO. “Our team has the utmost confidence that partnering with Cornell Capital and Trilantic North America will help us build on our unique market position delivering experienced nurses for urgent hospital needs. Bringing the capabilities of our two brands to this larger platform will accelerate organic growth, allow for greater product and service innovation, and position the combined company to help meet the nation’s expanding healthcare staffing needs.”
“Combining Fastaff and U.S. Nursing to our recent acquisitions of trustaff and CardioSolution on one platform will increase the scale and diversity of staffing opportunities we can deliver to both clients and healthcare professionals,” said Adam Zoia, who has been named CEO of the combined company. “I look forward to applying superior technology to these best-in-class businesses and teams to strengthen their brands and accelerate growth at this critical moment for the industry across our country.”
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in March 2021, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is acting as legal advisor to Cornell Capital. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is acting as legal advisor to Trilantic North America. Lincoln International is acting as financial advisor to Fastaff and U.S. Nursing, and Ropes & Gray LLP is acting as legal advisor.