Sarasota health care IT firm scores $36M investment

SARASOTA — Mobile health care communication firm Voalte scored a $36 million capital investment from Bedford Funding, a $1.4 billion technology-focused private equity firm.

The investment is the latest triumph for fast-growing Voalte, which stands for voice, alarm and text, and is pronounced like “volt.” The firm's core application, Voalte One, enables nurses and hospital employees to improve communications. More than 35,000 caregivers in a host of top-ranked medical centers, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California and Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, use the firm's applications.

“The value of smartphones in healthcare is undeniable,” Voalte co-founder and President Trey Lauderdale says in a release. “We are thrilled to work with Bedford Funding to deliver solutions that will accelerate market growth, transform the way caregivers communicate and improve patient care. This investment also provides us with the resources to grow our company, further expand our engineering team, and build out our services and support.”

Voalte moved into a new office last year on Fruitville Road near Interstate 75, where it boosted its payroll from 70 to about 130 employees. The firm no longer releases sales figures, though executives, in a 2012 interview, say the figure back then was around $10 million a year. Lauderdale projected the firm would grow by at least four times in 2013.

Raymond James Health Care Investment Banking Group was the exclusive financial advisor to Voalte in the transaction, the release states. Bedford Funding, founded in 2006, specializes in IT investment opportunities in the health care and human capital management markets.

“We are delighted to invest in the future development of an organization that has implemented clinical communication solutions for improved patient care in some of the most prestigious hospitals in the country,” Bedford Funding Managing Partner Charles Jones says in the release.