Acuity advises Epiris and Appello on the acquisition of Lifeline24

Epiris today announces that Epiris Fund II, advised by Epiris LLP, has supported Appello, a leading technology-enabled care provider, in the acquisition of Lifeline24.

Both Appello and Lifeline24 offer personal alarms together with a monitoring service that allow the elderly and vulnerable to live independently in their own home, knowing that help can be summoned if needed. Appello leads the market in digital products and services which it supplies to housing, health and care providers across the UK. Lifeline24 provides its products and services direct to consumers. The combined business will serve over 300,000 individuals, and more than 350,000 connections, across the UK.

Appello is run by Chief Executive Tim Barclay. Lance Batchelor, formerly CEO of Saga plc and currently Chairman of several private equity-backed businesses, as well as the Lead Non-Executive Director on the Royal Navy Board, will join the group as Chairman.

Nicola Gray, Investment Partner at Epiris, said: “Appello and Lifeline24 operate in an attractive market where demographic and technology changes are combining to create strong long-term growth trends. Putting Appello’s market-leading digital technology together with Lifeline24’s strength in digital marketing creates a business that is uniquely placed to benefit from these trends.”

Alex Fortescue, Managing Partner at Epiris, said: “Both Appello and Lifeline24 are successful digital disruptors. Combining them in a multichannel, technology-rich market leader is itself transformational and creates the opportunity to build a world-class business using their respective strengths.”

Tim Barclay, Chief Executive of Appello, said: “This is a really exciting step forward for our business. We use technology to help people lead independent and fulfilled lives, safe in the knowledge that at any time they can contact Appello for the support they need. Bringing Lifeline24 into the fold gives us an amazing opportunity to take the benefits of our technology-enabled services to a new set of customers and gives us an even larger market in which to innovate.”

The Epiris team on the deal is Alex Fortescue, Chris Hanna, Nicola Gray, Zoe Lai and Grace Knight. Epiris is advised by Macfarlanes, Acuity, Dentons, BDO, PwC, Anthesis and Project50.

Tim Barclay, Chief Executive of Appello, said:

“The Acuity team, led by Andy and David, have been excellent to work with and have added very significant value pre and during the process. In particular I have appreciated their timely sector intelligence, their thoughtful advice and the support for Appello and our shareholders as we evaluated and executed this transformational acquisition.”

Andy Lister, Managing Partner at Acuity, said:

“We were delighted to support Epiris and Appello on this landmark deal in the tech-enabled care services (TECS) sector. Appello is playing a lead role in the healthcare industry’s digital revolution and the acquisition of Lifeline24 cements its position as the technology-leader in the TECS space.”