Flurry of telecare activity continues as Appello acquires Medvivo’s Careline business
Appello, the UK’s largest telecare monitoring provider, has successfully acquired Medvivo Careline, the telecare and out of hours call monitoring service business from Medvivo Group as M&A activity in the TEC sector continues.
The acquisition represents growth of circa 20 percent for Appello’s monitoring business, adding Medvivo Careline’s 37,000 telecare connections to take its total connections towards 250,000.
The acquisition continues the spate of activity in the telecare sector of 2019, which has seen a number of players expanding their telecare operations as the technology-enabled care (TEC) market shifts from analogue to digital.
In September 2019, ICES provider Medequip acquired County Careline Services and its 10,000 connections, rebranding the service to Medequip Connect, whilst in October 2019, assistive tech giant Doro acquired Centra Pulse & Connect, expanding its connections to 200,000 connections.
Later in October, assistive tech provider Alcuris and Irish TEC provider Radius Connect24 also confirmed a new partnership that would see Alcuris’ telecare solutions rolled out in Ireland.
The acquisition of Medvivo is the second and largest acquisition by Appello in 2019 and follows the purchase of RedAssure Independent Living, a provider of telecare services from Worthing Homes, which also took place in October.
Formerly known as Magna Careline, Medvivo Careline started trading in 1989 and provides alarm monitoring and comfort calls to help customers remain independent and safe within their homes.
Discussing the decision to sell the telecare operation, Liz Rugg, Managing Director at Medvivo, commented: “When we decided the time was right to exit telecare monitoring to focus on our core areas of strategic growth, such as providing integrated urgent care services across Bath and NE Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire, we knew we needed an excellent partner to take over the service.
“We chose Appello because we were impressed by their approach to quality of service, and their commitment and record in delivering customer experience improvements through innovation. We knew our customers would be safe and secure in the hands of Appello.”
According to Appello, Medvivo’s customers should experience no disruption as a result of the transfer and will be transitioned to its CareNet digital monitoring platform.
Tim Barclay, CEO at Appello said: “Medvivo Careline have delivered a quality service for their customers for many years and we look forward to continuing that tradition. We felt a strong synergy because of our respective emphasis on service excellence and were attracted by their diverse customer base – from supported residential developments, to individuals living in their own homes in the community.
“The acquisition represents the continuation of our ambitious growth strategy and reinforces our position as the leading provider in the UK of both telecare monitoring and digital telecare services.”
