Bansk Extends Arcadia Bet with Continuation Fund Play

Private equity firm Bansk Group has closed a continuation fund for Arcadia Consumer Healthcare, extending its partnership with the consumer healthcare platform it first backed in 2021. The transaction, co-led by Coller Capital and Ares Secondaries Funds, brings fresh capital to accelerate growth while offering existing limited partners a liquidity option. The deal underscores growing investor appetite for consumer healthcare platforms with proven acquisition capabilities and brand portfolios anchored in over-the-counter medicines and nutritional supplements.

Bansk, a New York-based consumer-focused firm with $5 billion in assets under management, announced the January 20, 2026 close alongside participation from investment funds managed by BlackRock, Churchill, Dextra Partners, and Future Standard. The structure allows Bansk to maintain control while resetting the investment clock—a increasingly common maneuver in private equity as firms seek extended hold periods for platform companies still demonstrating strong growth trajectories.

The continuation fund represents a strategic recapitalization that enables Bansk to retain ownership of Arcadia while providing liquidity to existing investors who wish to exit. Financial terms were not disclosed, though the participation of multiple institutional secondaries buyers signals substantial scale.

The transaction structure is characteristic of the continuation fund model that has gained prominence as private equity hold periods extend beyond traditional three-to-five-year windows. Rather than forcing a full exit through sale or IPO, Bansk creates a new fund vehicle that acquires the asset from the original fund, allowing patient capital to remain invested while time-constrained LPs can cash out.

Continuation funds have evolved from niche solutions to mainstream liquidity tools in private equity's toolkit. For Bansk, the decision to pursue this structure rather than a traditional exit reflects confidence in Arcadia's runway for continued value creation.

"Arcadia's trajectory over the past four years reflects Bansk's strategy in action—partnering with great consumer businesses and helping them scale with discipline, innovation, and a deep commitment to the end consumer," said Chris Kelly, Senior Partner at Bansk, in the announcement. "The Company enters this next chapter with exceptional momentum and a proven platform for growth."

The rationale centers on Arcadia's demonstrated M&A capabilities. Since Bansk's 2021 entry, the platform has executed two major acquisitions while implementing organic growth initiatives across its brand portfolio. This track record positions the company as a consolidator in the fragmented consumer healthcare market, where legacy brands often languish under large pharmaceutical companies or family ownership.

For secondary buyers Coller and Ares, the appeal lies in acquiring a de-risked asset with proven operational momentum. Continuation funds typically offer secondaries investors entry at more attractive valuations than primary buyouts while providing exposure to assets with established growth trajectories. The co-investment from BlackRock and other institutional players further validates the platform's quality.

Bart Becht, Senior Partner and Chairman of Bansk, emphasized the dual benefit: "We were pleased to deliver an outcome that offered our existing investors a liquidity option, and the continued support from several of our existing investors is a testament to their continued confidence in Arcadia's growth potential."

That some original LPs chose to roll equity into the continuation fund signals strong conviction in the platform's prospects—a key indicator of deal quality in the secondaries market.

Arcadia operates as a branded consumer healthcare platform focused on over-the-counter medications and vitamins, minerals, and supplements (VMS). The company's portfolio centers on four "Power Brands" that command category leadership positions and physician recommendations.

Core Brand Portfolio:

Beyond these anchors, Arcadia's portfolio includes Naturelo, Betadine, Kaopectate, FungiNail, SlowMag, Safetussin, and OptiNail—each targeting specific consumer health needs with differentiated formulations or clinical positioning.

The company distributes through omnichannel retail, including major drug chains, food retailers, mass merchandisers, Amazon, and direct-to-consumer platforms. This distribution breadth provides resilience against channel-specific disruption while capturing consumers across shopping occasions.

"Our mission is clear: to build a differentiated portfolio of health and wellness brands that help consumers achieve the harmony of feeling and looking good," said Mike DeBiasi, Chief Executive Officer of Arcadia. "Bansk has been instrumental in elevating and expanding our portfolio of brands, and we are confident this partnership will enable us to deliver even greater value to consumers."

The platform model allows Arcadia to leverage shared infrastructure across brands—from regulatory expertise to retail relationships to manufacturing partnerships—creating operational leverage that standalone brands cannot achieve. This efficiency becomes particularly valuable as retail consolidation increases buyer power and marketing costs rise across digital channels.

The consumer healthcare sector has attracted sustained private equity interest as demographic trends and consumer behavior shifts create tailwinds for OTC medicines and supplements. An aging population, growing health consciousness, and preference for self-care over physician visits drive category expansion.

Continuation funds more broadly have surged in popularity as private equity grapples with extended hold periods. According to industry data, the average PE hold period has stretched beyond six years, up from four years a decade ago. This extension reflects multiple factors: larger entry multiples requiring longer value creation periods, challenging exit markets, and genuine operational runway in platform companies.

Recent Consumer Healthcare Platform Transactions:

The Arcadia continuation fund arrives as consumer healthcare M&A activity remains robust despite broader economic uncertainty. Large pharmaceutical companies continue divesting non-core consumer brands, creating acquisition opportunities for platforms like Arcadia. Simultaneously, family-owned legacy brands seek institutional capital and operational expertise to navigate retail consolidation and digital transformation.

For secondaries investors, consumer healthcare platforms offer defensive growth characteristics—recurring revenue from consumable products, brand loyalty, and resilience through economic cycles. These attributes make continuation funds in the sector particularly attractive relative to more cyclical industries.

Founded in 2019, Bansk Group represents a relatively young firm built by consumer industry veterans with deep operational expertise. The firm's leadership team has collectively invested more than $30 billion of equity capital across 40+ transactions in consumer products, bringing pattern recognition from decades of brand-building and M&A execution.

The firm focuses exclusively on four consumer categories: personal care, consumer health, food & beverage, and household products. This specialization allows Bansk to develop category-specific playbooks for value creation while maintaining a network of industry relationships for sourcing acquisitions and operational talent.

Bart Becht, Bansk's Chairman, previously served as CEO of Reckitt Benckiser, where he led the company's transformation into a consumer health powerhouse. This operating pedigree differentiates Bansk from generalist buyout firms, providing portfolio companies access to executives who have scaled global consumer brands.

The Arcadia investment exemplifies Bansk's platform-building strategy. Rather than backing single brands, the firm seeks opportunities to create consolidation vehicles in fragmented categories, then systematically acquires complementary assets while driving organic growth through innovation and expanded distribution.

With $5 billion in AUM, Bansk operates at the upper end of the middle market—large enough to pursue substantial platforms but nimble enough to move quickly on add-on acquisitions. The continuation fund structure for Arcadia suggests the firm views the platform as a long-duration asset worthy of extended capital deployment.

The Arcadia continuation fund signals several broader market dynamics worth monitoring. First, expect continued growth in continuation fund activity as private equity firms seek alternatives to traditional exits in uncertain M&A markets. These structures offer flexibility while maintaining sponsor control—particularly valuable for platforms with clear acquisition pipelines.

Second, consumer healthcare consolidation should accelerate as large pharmaceutical companies continue portfolio rationalization. Brands that once anchored consumer divisions at GSK, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson increasingly find homes with specialized platforms backed by private equity. Arcadia's proven integration capabilities position it well to capitalize on this trend.

Third, the participation of multiple institutional secondaries buyers reflects growing sophistication in the continuation fund market. As these transactions become more common, pricing dynamics and structural terms will evolve, potentially creating opportunities for both sponsors and investors.

Risks remain. Consumer healthcare faces headwinds from private label competition, particularly in categories like vitamins and supplements where brand differentiation proves challenging. Retail consolidation continues shifting power to buyers, pressuring margins. And regulatory scrutiny of health claims requires constant vigilance, particularly for supplements marketed with functional benefits.

For Arcadia specifically, successful execution depends on identifying and integrating acquisitions while maintaining organic growth across existing brands. The platform must balance capital allocation between M&A and brand investment—a tension that has challenged other consumer rollups.

The continuation fund provides runway to pursue this strategy without near-term exit pressure. Whether Bansk ultimately exits through strategic sale to a larger consumer company, sale to another financial sponsor, or public markets will depend on market conditions and the platform's scale at maturity. For now, the firm has secured patient capital to continue building.

The transaction underscores a fundamental shift in private equity: the recognition that value creation increasingly requires time horizons beyond traditional fund lives. Continuation funds offer a solution, allowing sponsors to extend partnerships with high-performing assets while providing liquidity to investors seeking exits. As this model matures, expect more firms to view continuation funds not as exceptions but as standard tools in the value creation playbook.