Bardavon Health Innovations has become a force in the the workers' compensation market, with its products for guiding care and injury prevention used by a nationwide network of 21,000 physical and occupational therapy providers. But it needed something, founder and CEO Matt Condon said: a way to supplement care provided by therapists.
It found San Francisco-based PeerWell, which had an app that worked with patients with those same types of injuries. What PeerWell needed was stronger ties with the care providers treating those patients.
On Tuesday, Bardavon announced it had purchased PeerWell. The purchase price was not disclosed, but terms also make PeerWell investors shareholders in Bardavon.
"They're brilliant and had incredible experience," Condon said of PeerWell's people. "Three of their execs are here now and we're doing what small aggressive disruptors like us do — piling into rooms with white boards."
Condon said PeerWell's dozen-plus people, along with some contractors, now are part of Bardavon. PeerWell's people will remain in California for now, he said.
The challenge going forward is to get the combination of the two companies, and two approaches, right, but also to do right by patients and providers, Condon said. Beyond right, he said Bardavon has to make dealings with patients and providers "feel simple."
Bardavon was in position to make the PeerWell acquisition thanks to $90 million in capital raised last year. The addition of PeerWell's strong backers — influential early stage investor xSeed Capital and OMERS Ventures, an arm of one of Canada's largest pension funds — only strengthens Bardavon's growth plans.
Condon said there's lots of room for growth in the workers' compensation market, but musculoskeletal conditions are a huge part of the larger health care market. That makes a system that can identify and incentive quality care very valuable, he said.
"So, if we can do this in workers' compensation, why limit it to just that?"
