VSS Capital Partners, a private investment firm investing in the business services, healthcare, education and information industries, completed a new platform investment in Barrier Companies, a fire and life safety (FLS) and containment services provider specializing in preventing the spread of fire, smoke, water and infection in buildings. Barrier’s management team invested alongside VSS and Lincolnshire Management. Financial terms of the private investment were not disclosed.
Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Lenexa, KS, Barrier operates two divisions. The first is compliance services, which provides inspection and repair of fire and smoke doors, dampers, barriers and complementary services to hospitals and other healthcare facilities. The second division is new build services, which provides planning, budgeting, consulting and installation of thermal and moisture protection with a focus on data centers, education facilities and commercial facilities.
“Barrier’s services are poised to meet a pent-up demand from hospitals and healthcare facilities across the nation that postponed their routine FLS inspections and repairs during the pandemic,” Jeffrey Stevenson, managing partner of VSS Capital Partners, said.
Barrier’s services — ranging from inspections, repairs, assessments, installation, planning and code compliance support — can help hospitals remain in compliance and maintain funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which continues to make codes and standards more stringent.
“We believe there is a considerable backlog of FLS inspections and repair services that will need to be completed this year by hospitals and healthcare facilities to remain compliant with CMS,” Jaye Sieland, a partner at Barrier Companies, said. “We’re excited to partner with VSS and Lincolnshire as the coronavirus vaccine is widely distributed and allows us to put our ambitious growth plans into action. Our valued clients will benefit from our new partnership as we continue to serve as their trusted FLS and compliance services partner.”
Barrier employs more than 150 professionals from four regional offices spread between Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Texas.
“We expect many hospitals to restart this critical work in 2021 and Barrier is well positioned to benefit due to their successful track record and to perform these crucial FLS and containment services at scale,” Patrick Turner, managing director of VSS Capital Partners, said.
