Digital healthcare start-up

GripAble’s mission is to make outcome-driven care scalable and accessible to all, delivering high volumes of efficient and personalised rehabilitation therapy from hospital to home.

Through its digitally led care pathway, combining bespoke hand-held sensors, engaging, gamified app software, and hybrid tele-therapy services, GripAble enables home-based rehabilitation, driving improved outcomes whilst reducing costs and decreasing the burden on healthcare systems.

A spin out from Imperial College London (ICL), GripAble has been tested and developed over the last seven years in partnership with thousands of occupational and physical therapists and patients across multiple clinical conditions and leading academic institutions including ICL and within Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust.

With more than 8,000 individuals having already used the platform, GripAble has established itself as a leading technology in the remote-rehab space in the UK, recording 100,000 activity sessions and 27 million movement repetitions across its users.

Investment drive

To further scale its industry-leading platform throughout the UK and Europe, GripAble pitched for private equity investment. Following the successful close of a £1.6m pre-series A funding round in March 2021, GripAble kicked off its official Series A fundraise to enable the next stage of its growth journey to begin, with a particular focus on growing markets in Europe and the US.

At Series A, the company attracted equal investment from IP Group and Parkwalk Advisors, with existing investors following on, leading to the successful close of a $11m round of funding.

Shouting about the success

To communicate this impressive achievement, V Formation’s PR specialists worked closely with the investors’ communications teams to coordinate and align the external communications around the funding, including a news release to announce the investment to GripAble’s key media across the private equity, business, technology, medtech, rehab and healthcare sectors. We worked with Parkwalk Advisors’ PR consultancy to coordinate an exclusive interview for CEO Dr Paul Rinne with The Telegraph, resulting in publication of the story in the print newspaper which has a circulation of over 300k.

Following issue of the press release, we secured national and international exposure for GripAble, including:

• 30+ pieces of coverage, including Mobi Health News, UK Tech News, Bdaily, Digital Health Business & Technology, Health Investor UK, Pharma Phorum, and many more.
• 4m+ total reach across both national and international online media outlets
• 270 brand mentions
• 10 backlinks to the GripAble website (including 8 follow links)
• 45 Facebook shares
• 61 Twitter shares

MP praise

The successful PR campaign attracted interest from Parliament, with Stephen Hammond MP for Wimbledon, where GripAble’s international sales and distribution centre is based, arranging to visit the company as part of an initiative led by the British Venture Capital Association on how private equity investment has helped businesses to scale up. V Formation worked with Parkwalk Advisors to coordinate the visit, where CEO Paul Rinne delivered a presentation sharing the background to GripAble and its growth story to date, effectively demonstrating how an international company has successfully stemmed from the local business community in Wimbledon.

Of the visit to GripAble, Stephen Hammond MP, said:

“GripAble proves that innovative companies of the future that are building products that will transform healthcare can be based anywhere, but I’m particularly proud that GripAble has started out in Wimbledon. It’s been wonderful to see the development of the company over the last two years, and I’m sure the developments over the next three years will be equally extraordinary, particularly with the backing of private equity investment.”

Get in touch

The V Formation team loves working with early stage, ambitious businesses like GripAble that are committed to making a difference. From advising on strategy to shouting about your success, V Formation can help your business to fly.

Contact us for a friendly chat on 0115 667 0131 or drop us a line here.