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Kenbi acquires major homecare provider, benefitting from liquid M&A opportunities and taking digital disruptor lead

Berlin – February 21, 2024 – Kenbi, the German HealthTech start-up with Europe’s only home-healthcare solution ecosystem, today announced the buy out of Brandenburg-based care provider Lioncare. The buyout was supported by a private Series B investment round. This transaction highlights huge growth opportunities for kenbi as the only homecare innovator that has its own nurse- and customer-facing tech stack to transform Germany’s pressurized long-term care market.

The merger with Lioncare marks kenbi’s largest acquisition to date. With Lioncare, kenbi is joined by a care expert with a thirty year track record, focused dementia expertise, and over 650 seasoned caretakers. Lioncare has 30 care hubs across Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt. It is well-versed in a unique model of curated regional care centers, providing a homecare agency, daycare, and shared serviced apartments. The novel cluster model opens the door for kenbi to expand into more holistic care offerings, access into new payor models and move towards the rapidly growing, highly cost effective shared apartment space.

Germany’s €60bn long-term care sector is massive,with no provider able to serve it

Germany currently has over five million long-term care patients, resulting in a €60bn care market set to reach over €80bn by 2030. Healthcare needs are clearly on the rise – and so is the preference for homecare – yet the European market remains highly underserved and uneconomical.

With traditional homecare providers failing to digitize and modernize over the last thirty years, they now find themselves unable to respond to the dire shift in market conditions post-Covid-19. The devastating care gap trend is accelerating: A 2023 survey by the bpa homecare employers’ association found that over 70% of mobile care providers in Germany face severe financial difficulties. Among the more than 17,000 homecare providers in Germany, most are small, non-digitized agencies with no innovation power or capital to change the system. In fact, the top 15 players in the homecare market own less than 5% of the space, and few are big enough to drive consolidation or innovation.

Market turn offers unique M&A opportunities for digital disruptors

The situation for digital homecare disruptor kenbi looks very different. Veronika Clarici-Fanfule, Head of Direct Investments and Managing Director at SPFF Holdin the lead investor in kenbi’s Series B Round, said: “Now is the optimal time window to focus on consolidating providers that have a solid care base and great potential for modernization within the realm of kenbi’s tech-driven approach. We look forward to supporting more of these opportunities in the future.” Veronika is a seasoned expert in the area of insolvency integration and will also join kenbi’s board.

Already one of Germany’s largest private homecare providers, kenbi successfully scaled a decentralized yet connected network of more than 50 care hubs across the country, employing over 1000 nurses and providing over 120,000 services to homecare patients every month. Within its digitally enabled homecare system, the company employs proprietary planning and efficiency tools to unburden its nurses.

In addition, kenbi recently launched kenbi+, its first outward facing tech solution aimed at patients, their families, and the wider caretaking network. The new online platform combines all homecare solutions in one portal, forming a holistic end-to-end care ecosystem that complements traditional nursing services.

The additional offerings will include a telecare advisory, automated insurance claims, and an online knowledge center, including exclusive homecare focused courses. In future, kenbi+ will feature a marketplace for additional homecare relevant products and services provided by select partners, with 24/7 access to self-service solutions, visibility into the care journey, and health data analyses. This will enable the rapid scalability of a decentralized care structure while securing increased and improved homecare coverage without requiring additional human resources.

The Dutch Achmea Innovation Fund invested for exactly that reason: “Kenbi is the only player in Germany that develops its own tech and the only one in Europe building a tech-driven ecosystem around its own service agencies and customers”, Katharina Maass, Managing Director of Achmea Innovation Fund points out.

Combining the best of both worlds to rethink the way we care

Post-Lioncare acquisition, kenbi is emerging as one of the key shapers of a new homecare sector by coordinating between product partners, caregivers, payors, and the government. Dr. Ralf Molitor, Managing Director of Helsana HealthInvest, an investor in the latest round, said: “We see a great opportunity through kenbi to build new and connect existing homecare solutions for greater availability of care at lower costs. Their digitally optimized value proposition is relevant to all overstretched healthcare markets and will reshape an entire industry also beyond German borders.”

Looking forward, kenbi’s growth trajectory marks the start of a bigger and better homecare solution that could completely reshape the way we give, receive and secure care in the future.

About Kenbi

Founded in late 2019 by Katrin Alberding, Clemens Raemy and Bruno Pires, kenbi is a homecare focused HealthTech company based in Berlin. Driven by the vision to create a world, where everyone is cared for, kenbi is building the first proprietary digital ecosystem around its own nurse agencies and the wider care network. Their technology reliefs nurses from administrative tasks through automation and serves patients and their families with full-circle homecare solutions accessible online. Only four years in, the company is already among the biggest private homecare solution providers in Germany, employing over 1000 nurses across West and East Germany, extending over 120,000 products & services per month.

About SPFF Holding GmbH

SPFF is the investment vehicle of the Flick Family in Austria, with a dedicated team focused on taking the lead in capital raisings and acting as long-term partners. The core strategy is to provide growth equity for impactful technological solutions, guided by an entrepreneurial spirit and operational excellence.

About Helsana

Helsana HealthInvest runs the corporate venturing of Helsana, a leading health insurer in Switzerland. The focus is on investments across Europe that improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare. In particular, this includes digital health solutions that enable customers and patients to stay healthy, become healthy or live better with an illness.

About Achmea Innovation Fund

The Achmea Innovation Fund invests in start-ups and scale-ups that match the mission and strategic domains in which Achmea is active. The fund only takes minority interests in these companies, with the aim of further growth and realizing strategic value for Achmea. The fund was established in 2019 and now manages a portfolio of 15 participations. The Achmea Innovation Fund contributes to solving social issues, for example in the domain of health.