Numotion 'energized'

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Numotion has a new private equity owner and, soon, it will have a more diverse board of directors, both to better position the company for accelerated growth.

Numotion announced in November that it had been acquired by an affiliate of AEA Investors LP. Using the firm's connections, the company plans to now build out its board with more independent directors.

“These will be individuals who can bring some perspective and experience from all different aspects of health care and the regulatory world,” said Mike Swinford, CEO. “It will be transformative, in terms of what the industry and we can do to better serve end users.”

Under previous owners LLR Partners and Audax Private Equity, Numotion's board comprised Bob Gouy, who owned United Seating and Mobility, which merged with ATG Rehab to become Numotion in 2013; Howard Ross and Brian Radic of LLR Partners, which will stay onboard as a minority investor; Keith Palumbo and Joe Rogers of Audax; Timothy Burfield, who co-founded ATG; and Mark Vachon of bluebird bio, a biotech company, and formerly of GE, where Swinford worked previously.

While Numotion's inorganic growth has dominated much of the headlines under LLR and Audax's ownership, the company has also grown organically, something it expects to accelerate under AEA, Swinford points out.

“We've done different market research studies and we much more clearly understand all the different segments of the industry,” he said. “There's opportunity to grow everywhere. There are white spaces we don't cover and there are segments that we cover but only lightly. We're getting much more targeted and segmented organically.”

Expect inorganic growth to also continue under AEA, despite considerable consolidation by Numotion and the other national complex rehab provider, National Seating & Mobility.

“Whether they add a new geography or a new capability in terms of how we're serving the market—there are still hundreds and hundreds of complex rehab providers out there,” Swinford said. “It's still a fragmented market.”

Increasingly, Numotion is focusing on acquisition targets like Medsource that add another layer to the company's business model, Swinford says.

“We want to learn from them and apply those learnings to the rest of the company,” he said. “We tend to be clinic-focused, but a company like Medsource focuses on family practice physicians because their patients are in more rural areas and might not have access to clinics.”

It's still early days under AEA, but Numotion is “energized,” Swinford says.

“There are some individuals at AEA who I've known for awhile who I worked with in a prior life, so they're not entirely unfamiliar faces, which is always good,” he said.