News

Kinderhook Industries LLC said March 8 that it invested in StudyKIK. Financial terms weren’t announced. Matt Miller and Jerome Chiaro, StudyKIK’s founders, also invested. StudyKIK, of Costa Mesa, California, uses social media to provide patient recruiting solutions for clinical trials.

PRESS RELEASE

Kinderhook Industries Announces Investment in StudyKIK in Partnership with its Founders

March 8, 2018

New York, NY – Kinderhook Industries, LLC (“Kinderhook”) announced today an investment in StudyKIK (the “Company”) in partnership with StudyKIK’s founders, Matt Miller and Jerome Chiaro. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Costa Mesa, CA, StudyKIK utilizes social media to provide disruptive patient recruiting solutions for clinical trials. The Company is a first mover in leveraging social media community groups in the patient recruitment space, using these methods to address the recruitment and retention of patients in the $40+ billion clinical trial industry that has historically relied on traditional advertising mediums. StudyKIK serves over 1,400 research sites with a growing database of over 2,000,000 active patients from its extensive social media communities across Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, and more.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Kinderhook. When we set out to find the right partner to help fulfill our vision for StudyKIK, we were focused on identifying a firm that could provide us with the strategic resources, technological prowess and business connections we need to rapidly grow our business. Kinderhook’s background with building companies like the site network Radiant Research showed us they understand this clinical trial industry and how StudyKIK can leapfrog with the innovative Kinderhook team.” said Mr. Miller, Co-Founder of StudyKIK. “Kinderhook’s extensive experience in the clinical trial space coupled with their deep network of operating partners made them the clear choice for StudyKIK. We are eager to embark on the next phase of ‘growth-hacking’ with the Kinderhook team,” said Mr. Chiaro, Co-Founder of StudyKIK.

“We are extremely excited to work closely with Matt, Jerome, and the StudyKIK Team to build on the Company’s success,” said Chris Michalik, Managing Director at Kinderhook. “StudyKIK has carved out a disruptive value proposition in the clinical trial recruitment space yet they have only scratched the surface from a market penetration perspective. There were over 250,000 registered clinical studies in 2017, and every one of them is a candidate for StudyKIK’s suite of services.”

Brandon Watson – a Kinderhook operating partner – joined the board of directors of StudyKIK in connection with Kinderhook’s investment. Mr. Watson is a technology industry veteran and currently managing director of KOM Partners. Previously, Mr. Watson held executive roles at Oracle (via acquisition of Datalogix), Amazon, Microsoft, and was CEO/founder of IMSafer. Mr. Watson also held an investment professional role at Soros Private Equity Partners. “Across the board, software and services are impacting more and more business sectors outside of what would traditionally be considered ‘tech’,” said Mr. Watson. “StudyKIK is a new breed of company which is thinking big about how to leverage agile techniques to impact traditionally non-tech verticals. I am thrilled to be working with Kinderhook and the management team at StudyKIK on their next phase of development.”
Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to Kinderhook. Financing was provided by Comerica Bank.

About Kinderhook Industries:

Kinderhook Industries, LLC is a private investment firm that manages over $2.0 billion of committed capital. We have made in excess of 150 investments and follow-on acquisitions since inception. Kinderhook’s investment philosophy is predicated on matching unique, growth-oriented investment opportunities with exceptional financial expertise and our proprietary network of operating partners. Our focus is on middle market businesses with defensible niche market positioning in the healthcare services, environmental / business services and automotive / light manufacturing sectors. We have a track record of successfully and consistently building industry leaders. In addition, Kinderhook is a licensed Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

For more information, please visit: www.kinderhook.com

About StudyKIK

StudyKIK utilizes social media to provide disruptive patient recruiting solutions for clinical trial sites, clinical research organizations, and pharmaceutical companies. The Company is a first mover in the patient recruitment space, using social media advertising to address recruiting and retention of patients in the $40bn+ clinical trial industry that has historically relied on traditional advertising mediums such as print and radio. StudyKIK serves over 1,400 research sites with a growing database of over 2,000,000 patients from its extensive social media communities across Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Pinterest.

For more information please visit: www.studykik.com

About KOM Partners

Headquartered in Boulder, CO, KOM Partners is an advisory firm which specializes in working with middle market and lower middle market growth oriented private equity firms and their management teams. KOM Partners works horizontally across an investment portfolio to solve hard operational or technology-enabled problems with product frameworks and operational tempo derived from decades of working for technology leaders. We build trust with management teams by asking the right questions and unlock hidden growth potential in their people, products, and processes. Similarly, we help investment professionals by supporting all deal phases from during sourcing, to diligence, to post-deal operations and board membership.