CareWorx, an Ottawa-based provider of managed IT services and senior care tech, announced Tuesday morning that it has closed $17 million in funding to expand its reach into a rapidly maturing market.
Kayne Partners, a California-based group connected to a fund that manages more than $26 billion in assets, is behind the round.
CareWorx CEO Mark Scott tells OBJ that private equity wasn’t the only option to take the firm to the next level. The company also considered a public offering on the TSX or acquisition by a larger public firm before deciding that Kayne’s experience in managed IT services and senior care made it “the right fit.”
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“I think like any technology company, you look to capital like this … to really take what we’ve established in the business and just accelerate it,” Scott says.
With this funding round, he says CareWorx will be looking to bolster its sales and global marketing teams, as well as building up the “war chest” for acquisitions. The firm’s M&A strategy could bring the company into new markets or add to its portfolio of tech offerings.
Founded in 2006, CareWorx now has 150 employees across Canada, with 60 operating out of the firm’s Ottawa headquarters. The growing company is the result of a merger two years ago between senior care provider CareWorx and IT firm TUC.
Scott, who was chief executive at TUC and remained at the helm of the merged company, says the senior care division represents 40 per cent of its revenues today, but that market is increasing in value with every day that goes by.
“This next decade, with the baby boomers hitting retirement years, there will be a lot of pressure on the healthcare system overall to be able to deliver services in a more effective way,” he says. “Technology is a key enabler, we believe, for that.”
CareWorx’s IT solutions include a 24-7 monitored services desk, remote management and end-user devices. In a senior care facility, touch screen devices and mobile workstations put patient records at nurses’ fingertips.
Scott says CareWorx’s services and technology are now in just under a third of the 18,000 long-term care facilities in North America. An aging population is also opening up new opportunities to bring tech into the home, as seniors hope to remain independent and stay out of care facilities for as long as possible. That could also reduce the burden on North American health-care systems.
“Home care is a little bit further down the line, but definitely still a massive market for us,” Scott says.
“I think demographics are definitely on our side.”
