REACH Call Completes $5 Million Series A Financing

Related story from Smart Mobile: GE Capital Fleet Unveils Intelligent Ops Telematics Solution

Press Release:

EDEN PRAIRIE, remedy Minn., website like this Oct 04, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — GE Capital Fleet Services today announced that it has launched Intelligent Ops(SM), an integrated business intelligence solution for operations and sales leaders who manage mobile personnel. The new solution, part of GE’s innovative Mobile Resource Intelligence(SM) telematics program, is designed to help customers drive significant profitability improvements through more efficient mobile operations.

Intelligent Ops helps business leaders transform enterprise and driver performance by evaluating mobile activities and costs against goals. With a simple click of the mouse, operations and sales leaders can now access mobile resource performance ranking by division, customer cost analysis and exception-based alerts for driver best practices and coaching opportunities. Feature-rich heat maps also deliver market coverage, activity and opportunity insight at-a-glance.

“The new Intelligent Ops solution will revolutionize the way business leaders think about and manage their mobile operations,” said Dyan Finkhousen, Mobile Resource Intelligence Strategy Leader for GE Capital Fleet Services. “We’re driving innovation into smart mobile technologies to help our customers exceed their business and fiscal goals and define a new standard of operational excellence.”

The Mobile Resource Intelligence program offers a suite of telematics-based business intelligence solutions. Unlike regular telematics programs, Mobile Resource Intelligence solutions are designed to provide business leaders with critical decision tools for their enterprise productivity, efficiency, compliance, safety and green objectives.

About GE Capital Fleet Services

GE Capital Fleet Services, based in Eden Prairie, Minn., is a global fleet management company with operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Visit the Web site at www.gefleet.com or follow company news via Twitter (@GEFleetSvcs).

GE Capital offers consumers and businesses around the globe an array of financial products and services. For more information, visit www.gecapital.com or follow company news via Twitter (@GECapital). GE /quotes/comstock/13*!ge/quotes/nls/ge (GE 16.92, +0.02, +0.12%) is a diversified infrastructure, finance and media company taking on the world’s toughest challenges. GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit www.ge.com.
 

Newly released update to BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. Local Media Forecast also indicates total local advertising will reach $145.2 billion in 2014

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VA. Sept. 28, sick 2010 – U.S. mobile local advertising revenues will increase from $213 million in 2009 to $2.02 billion in 2014, neuropathist
representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56.9 percent, according to a newly released update to BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. Local Media Forecast (2009-2014).

BIA/Kelsey defines mobile local advertising as advertising that is targeted based on a user’s location and/or advertising that is locally actionable. For large and small advertisers alike, location targeted ads will command premiums over non-local advertising, due to higher immediacy, consumer buying intent and conversion levels.

“We expect advertisers will be drawn to mobile marketing as the overall market shifts to digital ad platforms,” said Neal Polachek, president, BIA/Kelsey. “A lack of traffic to fulfill quotas on geotargeted ads will likely accelerate mobile Web site and application development by publishers.”

Regarding influencers of mobile ad growth, Michael Boland, senior analyst and program director of BIA/Kelsey’s Mobile Local Media practice added, “As we’ve seen in the online space over the past decade, tools will be introduced to democratize and localize the mobile ad buying process. Google has already begun to bundle mobile ad placements within its pervasive AdWords search marketing platform.”

BIA/Kelsey cites smartphone penetration, mobile Web usage and related increases in ad inventory as additional mobile ad growth drivers.

The Big Picture on Local Media

BIA/Kelsey expects total local advertising to grow from $130.6 billion in 2009 to $145.2 billion in 2014, representing a CAGR of 2.1 percent. Comprising total local advertising is traditional local media, which will decline from $115.1 billion in 2009 to $110 billion in 2014, a CAGR of negative 0.9 percent, and online/interactive local media, which will grow from $15.5 billion in 2009 to $35.2 billion in 2014, a CAGR of 17.4 percent.

Click here for the full press release.
Council Ventures Leads Investment Round in Fast-Growing Provider of Telemedicine Solutions

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––– REACH Call Inc. (REACH), a leading provider of telemedicine solutions, announced today it has completed a $5 million round of Series A financing. The investment was led by Nashville, Tenn.-based Council Ventures and was joined by co-investor Croft & Bender Capital of Atlanta, Ga., and existing investor Georgia Health Sciences University (formerly known as Medical College of Georgia) of Augusta.

Council Ventures is a private equity firm that invests in fast-growing health care services and health care information technology companies.

“There is a lot of growth capital available to health care companies, but very few professional investors have the knowledge, experience and breadth of health care industry relationships that Council Ventures brings to the table,” said industry veteran Ken Rardin, president and CEO of REACH. “I have raised more than $1 billion over my career and have learned to seek out investment partners that bring far more to the table than just capital. Council Ventures has a unique business model that is supported by successful health care business executives who are investors and are aligned with successful investment partners.”

REACH is transforming the paradigm of virtual health care by enabling specialists such as neurologists to evaluate and diagnose patients 24/7 in remote, underserved and even urban locations. REACH’s evidence-based software protocols enable clinically rich collaborations in time-critical emergency situations such as stroke, regardless of distance.

The new funding will support REACH’s continued expansion into acute care services in the burgeoning telemedicine market. REACH will grow its national sales and marketing operations and invest in R&D to expand into new clinical specialties.

“Our customers, which include small rural hospitals and some of the largest health care systems, such as HCA and Ascension, have experienced the value of our telestroke solution and are working with REACH to extend that success in other specialties,” said Nirav Desai, REACH’s vice president of marketing and product management.

Council Ventures General Partner Gary Peat said that REACH is an ideal addition to the private equity firm’s portfolio of health care companies. “What really excited us about REACH were the clinical applications that allow a specialist to provide the right care remotely to the right patient at the right time,” he said. “On top of providing higher quality care at a lower cost, the REACH network benefits all stakeholders: the patient, the hospital, the specialist and the payor.”
REACH was founded in 2006 by a group of neurology and emergency medicine physicians from the Augusta-based Georgia Health Sciences University (formerly known as Medical College of Georgia).

“Our technology is helping physicians improve the quality of stroke care every day,” said David Hess, M.D., chairman of REACH’s board of directors and chairman of the Department of Neurology at the Georgia Health Sciences University. “REACH has provided cost-effective and easy-to-use technology with comprehensive services that enable telemedicine programs to thrive.”

Rardin, who joined REACH as president and CEO in June, said that he agreed to become CEO for three reasons. “First, REACH’s model leverages a scarce resource, the specialist. Specialist coverage at urban, suburban and rural hospitals is a national issue, and getting worse every day. With REACH, specialists can immediately and affordably cover a greater number of facilities,” Rardin explained. “Second, REACH benefits all stakeholders: the patient, the specialist, the hospital and the payor. And third, I was looking for a growth company that was positioned to become the leader in telemedicine and I found all three at REACH.”

About REACH Call
Founded in 2006, REACH is a leading high-tech provider of telemedicine solutions. REACH provides a full suite of telemedicine technology and services dedicated to eliminating the geographical challenge associated with access to specialized health care, bringing time-critical emergency care for diseases such as stroke close to home. REACH offers an easy-to-implement Software as a Service platform for secure, clinically rich teleconsults, with instant documentation and reporting. REACH account teams work in partnership with customers to launch, grow and sustain their telemedicine programs. REACH serves hospitals in premier health care systems such as HCA, Ascension Health, OhioHealth and Ochsner Health System.

For more information on REACH Call, visit www.reachcall.com