by Tim Rowan, editor
It is a familiar experience for many. First, you get a taste of the healthcare at home field. The next thing you know, you are hooked. This is exactly what happened to Chelsea Stoner, Duncan Gills, and their colleagues at Battery Ventures, a private equity fund with operations in San Francisco, Boston, and Israel. First they engineered and underwrote the acquisition of CareAnyware by Brightree (HCTR, 1/4/13). A few years later, they exited the Brightree investment when that company was acquired by ResMed (HCTR, 2/17/16). Before long, they longed to get back into home care.
Today, Battery Ventures announced it found a way to satisfy its longing.
SAN FRANCICO, CA – August 24th, 2016 – ClearCare, the San Francisco-based software company with an EMR platform used by over 3,000 non-medical home care agencies, today announced a $60 million growth-equity investment led by global investment firm Battery Ventures. The company also announced that noted technologist Bala Krishna (Balki) Nakshatrala, former vice president of engineering at Mastercard, has joined ClearCare in the same role.
The company will use most of the investment to continue to develop its core platform and to explore new strategic partnerships, CEO Geoff Nudd told us, though some of it was used to replace earlier investors. As part of the financing, Battery Ventures General Partner Chelsea Stoner and Vice President Duncan Gills will join ClearCare’s board.
Ms. Stoner comes to ClearCare with experience in the software and healthcare-technology markets. Previously, she served on the boards of Brightree and Data Innovations, a provider of software for medical laboratories that was acquired by Roper Industries in February 2015. She will continue to serve on the boards of WebPT, a Web-based, electronic medical record (EMR) solution for physical, occupational and speech therapists; Avalara, which sells cloud-based, sales-tax software; and Intacct, the cloud-based ERP provider.
"We have been big admirers of ClearCare from afar since 2012," Ms. Stoner told us. "When we invested in Brightree, we got to see home care up close. What we saw is that technology is driving change and we wanted to get back in through a technology leader. ClearCare was the obvious choice. It is our mission to support strong companies like that."
The company's end-to-end platform includes point-of-care tracking, integrated payments, family portals and quality of care monitoring. ClearCare serves four of the largest five national home-care enterprises, and six of the largest 10, representing roughly 250,000 caregivers and 150,000 seniors under care. (Editor's note: for additional ClearCare background, go to homecaretechreport.com/search.asp and type "ClearCare" into our search field.)
"We are excited to partner with Battery Ventures as we aggressively pursue new opportunities to grow our market leadership," stated ClearCare CEO Geoff Nudd. "Battery’s expertise in the home care market makes the firm an ideal partner for this next step in our growth story."
He did add that Battery required some streamlining to put the company on a stronger financial footing. This resulted in approximately twenty layoffs. "But there were also some new positions created, including the VP of Engineering (mentioned above)," Nudd was quick to add.
"This sector still has a long way to go to fully serve our senior population," Nudd summarized. "The Rand Corporation estimates that there are as many as 18 million seniors that need the support of home care in order to remain independent. Our customers serve about 150,000 of them. We will continue to support our growing customer base and to build exciting products for them."
About ClearCare
ClearCare Online is a cloud-based home care software platform supporting private-duty home care companies for efficient, cost-effective aging at home. ClearCare's web and mobile platform helps home care agencies operate efficiently, scale services and improve the quality and documentation of care on behalf of their patients.
clearcare.com
About Battery Ventures
Battery strives to invest in cutting-edge, category-defining businesses in markets including software and services, Web infrastructure, consumer Internet, mobile and industrial technologies. Founded in 1983, the firm backs companies at stages ranging from seed to private equity and invests globally from offices in Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area and Israel.
Twitter: @BatteryVentures
battery.com
Find a full list of Battery's portfolio companies here.
©2016 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Tim Rowan's Home Care Technology Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com