Digital health platform Sharecare closed its acquisition of home care provider CareLinx for about $65 million, consisting of $54.6 million in cash and $10.4 million in stock.

“For the last decade, we have leveraged our platform to help people navigate the challenges of home care, as well as provide healthcare’s scarcest resource – nurses and caregivers – with the ability to earn higher pay and have greater schedule flexibility,” Sherwin Sheik, founder and CEO of CareLinx, said in a statement.

“Joining the Sharecare family will enable us to scale across their existing client base of health plans and large employers while working with their world-class engineers to drive operational efficiencies, enhance retention and engagement and ultimately, fully integrate CareLinx’s capabilities and network into the Sharecare platform.”

Sharecare, which recently went public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, provides a range of digital healthcare products, including smoking cessation, weight loss and anxiety management. CareLinx helps users find at-home caregivers to assist with grooming, meal prep, housekeeping, mobility and other needs.

Sharecare announced the acquisition’s closing during its first public earnings call. For the second quarter, ended June 30, the company reported revenue of $98.5 million, compared with $78.2 million during the same quarter last year.

But the quarter ended with a net loss of $20.2 million, compared with a net loss of $13.7 million last year. The company reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $6.6 million, compared with $7.9 million the year before.

“The second quarter reflects strong financial performance across our entire business and provides a solid foundation for accelerated growth as we enter the second half of the year,” Jeff Arnold, founder, chairman and CEO of Sharecare, said in a statement.

“Our commitment to delivering profitable, organic growth, combined with over $400 million of cash raised from our recent business combination, enables us to invest in innovation and new strategic opportunities like the acquisition of CareLinx to deliver added value to our customers while enhancing our growth.”

WHY IT MATTERS 

Home care is a fast-growing segment of the healthcare market. A Grand View Research report predicts the industry will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.9% from 2020 to 2027. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the overall employment of home health and personal care aides will grow 34% from 2019 to 2029, “much faster than the average for all occupations.”

As the nation grays, more older adults say they want to stay in their homes as they age. According to a 2018 AARP survey, 76% of Americans ages 50 and older said they’d rather remain in their current homes and 77% reported they’d like to stay in their community as long as possible.

“Regulatory and macro changes are driving the shift to home-based care, and COVID-19 further accelerated the adoption of telehealth and home-based services. And payers and providers need scalable in-home care-provider solutions to manage the total cost of care,” Arnold said in a statement.

THE LARGER TREND

Sharecare has been scooping up a variety of digital health companies over the past year and a half.

In February, the company finalized its acquisition of doc.ai, a health artificial intelligence platform. 

In 2020, it bought WhiteHatAI, behavioral health platform MindSciences and Visualize Health, a population health and quality measurement platform that helps providers catch gaps in patient care.