Montreal-based healthtech startup AlayaCare has secured $15 million CAD in growth capital financing from CIBC Innovation Banking.
The capital comes in the form of a debt facility that AlayaCare plans to use to “increase its presence in North America and Australia.” A spokesperson for CIBC declined to disclose the type of financing the debt facility entailed.
“What was in progress in ten years, quickly evolved in ten days.”
– Adrian Schauer, AlayaCare
Founded in 2014, AlayaCare has developed an end-to-end healthcare software platform that aims to help home and community care agencies manage their operations. The startup provides both traditional in-home and virtual care solutions that include clinical documentation, back-office operations, financial management, a mobile app, family portal, and remote patient monitoring.
The $15 million debt facility follows a successful year of financing for AlayaCare. In January, the Montreal startup announced it had secured a $47.9 million CAD extension for its Series C round, the first portion of which had been announced in July 2019.
The extension brought AlayaCare’s Series C to $115.8 million CAD. Notably, however, the initial Series C capital included an $18 million secondary buyout of the company’s early investors.
The financing, which AlayaCare slotted to support its R&D and mergers and acquisitions strategy, came at a key time for the startup, as a majority of the world plunged into the new COVID-19 pandemic reality in March.
The global pandemic has put a hyper-focus on life sciences to aid in the treatment and discovery of a vaccine for COVID-19, as well as the adoption of healthtech solutions that make it easier to maintain health and social distancing protocols.
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According to the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association’s latest report, Canadian life sciences companies received 29 percent ($722 million over 47 deals) of the overall venture capital allocated in the first half of this year. Comparatively, life sciences companies received just 17 percent ($1.1 billion invested over 177 deals) in the whole of 2019.
“From remote patient monitoring to virtual visits, adapting and adopting innovation is crucial during and post-pandemic.”
Over the last few months, there has also been an influx of biotech companies eyeing the public markets to some success, including Fusion Pharmaceuticals, Repare Therapeutics, and Chinook Therapeutics. Two healthtech-focused companies are also listed among the top ten Canadian VC deals in the first half of 2020 – Abcellera, which pulled in $144 million, and Ventus Therapeutics, which raised $81 million.
In the wake of COVID-19 safety concerns for seniors, both in long term care homes and receiving at-home treatment, AlayaCare launched a virtual video conferencing solution for seniors and care providers in April. The tool is meant to allow any in-person visit to be converted to a virtual visit.
The startup also released a COVID-19 screener as part of its home care mobile platform to provide front-line workers with a digital tool to assess risks before providing home and community care.
“The pandemic has shone light on the importance of home care as the safer setting for care,” Adrian Schauer, CEO and founder of AlayaCare, said in a statement to BetaKit. “It has also forced necessary change to the home care sector.”
“What was in progress in ten years, quickly evolved in ten days,” he added. “The world quickly realized the value technology brings, especially in health care, forcing health systems to quickly figure out how to effectively shift care setting. From remote patient monitoring to virtual visits, adapting and adopting innovation is crucial during and post-pandemic.”
Amid the pandemic, AlayaCare has also executed on the strategy outlined as part of its Series C raise. At the time, the startup acquired Procura, which had operations in Australia and Canada, and in July launched AlayaCare Residential (built off of Procura) for the Australia and New Zealand markets.
Procura, a division of Complia Health, a global provider of enterprise software for long-term and post-acute care organizations, was the first of two acquisitions AlayaCare made in 2020. In February, AlayaCare acquired New York-based software company Arrow Solutions. The move marked AlayaCare’s expansion into the US Medicaid market and was its fourth acquisition to date.
Schauer said in a statement to BetaKit that amid rapid growth in the sector, AlayaCare plans to use the CIBC financing to continue to invest in its core markets: Canada, the United States, and Australia. The CEO did not directly respond to questions about how the $15 million fits into the plan AlayaCare laid out for its $115.8 million Series C capital.
Image source AlayaCare via Twitter