Better quality of care in outpatient rehabilitation: Gimv portfolio company rehaneo acquires Reha Vita
The Munich-based rehaneo Group, one of Germany’s leading providers of outpatient rehabilitation, is integrating Reha Vitain Cottbus, Brandenburg’s largest outpatient rehabilitation centre. In doing so, rehaneo is continuing its consistent growth trajectory and doing everything that it can to ensure that more people can access professional rehabilitation measures close to where they live. Since its foundation mid-2020, the company has been supported by the investment firm Gimv, which recognizes the increasing importance of top-quality outpatient service provision for rehabilitation and has helped to shape the strategy from the very beginning.
rehaneo (www.rehaneo.de) is a rapidly growing provider of outpatient rehabilitation, aftercare, prevention and occupational health management in Germany. Around 18 months ago, Gimv and rehaneo’s managing partner Bruno Crone launched the company as a buy-and-build project with the goal of developing a leading network offering patients access to top-quality, local outpatient care. In doing so, rehaneo is addressing a fragmented growth market as more and more patients want to live at home during their rehabilitation. This improves patients’ quality of life, while the costs of outpatient rehabilitation are also around 40% lower than for inpatient care – for the same quality or even better quality – thereby reducing the burden on the payers.
“rehaneo offers rehabilitation centres a strong partner and an orderly succession opportunity. In addition to our professional competence, we are also placing an emphasis on appreciation and clear values. It is for example important to us to maintain and strengthen the unique character of our rehabilitation centres”, explains Crone. Based on this philosophy, rehaneo was able to win the rehabilitation centre Hunsrück and insa health management still in the founding year 2020. In 2021, the group was able to add rehabilitation centres in Koblenz, Bonn and Göttingen. The recently completed sixth acquisition Reha Vita in Cottbus, has developed from a small physiotherapy practice into a rehabilitation centre with more than 140 employees. In total, the rehaneo group today has more than 600 employees that care for a total of around 30,000 patients and customers a year and support them on their path to a rapid recovery.
Group strategy bears fruit
“From the very beginning, we were enthusiastic about the vision of establishing a leading quality provider in outpatient rehabilitation and we are proud of what has been achieved in such a short period of time”, notes Philipp v. Hammerstein, Partner and the manager responsible for Gimv’s health & care activities in Europe’s German-speaking regions. “We are delighted to be able to actively support rehaneo’s management team with our expertise as an investor specializing in healthcare”, adds Lars Timmer, Principal at Gimv. rehaneo’s strong positioning will be further expanded through additional acquisitions as well as the targeted development of existing rehabilitation centres and the establishment of new ones. The trusting collaboration between Gimv and the management team is a decisive component here. “From day one, we were convinced that Gimv is perfectly suited to us. It has proven to be an agile, hands-on partner with an unparalleled knowledge of the market”, confirms Crone.
Already today, rehaneo sets itself apart through excellent scores in terms of quality and patient satisfaction, advanced digitization with an innovative patient app, a clear commitment to ESG criteria and, not least, a high level of employee satisfaction. “We specifically search for successful, well-established outpatient rehabilitation centres and remedy providers that share our values and recognise the advantages of working together as a larger group”, explains Bruno Crone.“Whether in negotiations with suppliers, through group-wide economies of scale and synergy effects or in terms of further training and education, a group can achieve much more than a standalone centre.”