CHARLOTTE, N.C., August 19, 2024 – Falfurrias Management Partners (Falfurrias), a Charlotte-based private equity firm focused on growth-oriented, middle-market businesses, today announced its investment in Jumo Health, an innovative and award-winning clinical trial solutions company driving better outcomes for clinical trials globally. Jumo Health develops creative, patient-centric educational solutions that improve health literacy to accelerate clinical trial enrollment and increase participant retention.
While clinical trials suffer from low enrollment, high dropout rates, and a startling lack of diverse representation, Jumo Health’s solutions aim to remedy these critical industry problems. Jumo Health’s curriculum-based educational solutions ensure prospective clinical trial participants have information relevant to their age, gender, race, language, and socioeconomic status at every stage of their journey, from pre-consent trial awareness to ongoing trial engagement. The result is faster recruitment, longer retention, increased patient compliance, and greater overall trial success for sponsors.
The Falfurrias investment will bring new resources and expertise to the Jumo Health team, aimed at expanding the organization’s core capabilities, enabling data-driven solutions, and widening patient engagement. Specifically, Falfurrias is energized by Jumo Health’s commitment to improving access to clinical trials among traditionally underrepresented communities, many of whom have a deep-seated mistrust of the healthcare system due to historical inequities. Jumo Health has taken tangible steps to rebuild this trust by creating culturally sensitive materials and establishing a robust network of patient advocacy groups and more than 2,000 religious, social, government, and community-based organizations.
Adam Cossman, an executive advisor on the Falfurrias team with 25 years of pharmaceutical commercialization experience, will join Jumo’s board of directors as Chairman. Alexander Jutkowitz, an executive in residence at Falfurrias and global content marketing and communications expert, and Jackie Kent, a pharmaceutical executive with nearly 30 years of clinical trial innovation experience, will also join the board of directors.
“Treatment advancements for increasingly targeted patient populations depend on more diverse and innovative clinical trial solutions,” said Adam Cossman. “As treatments become more personalized and trial complexity increases, the need for effective patient communications is more critical than ever. Jumo Health’s patient-centric approach gets to the heart of these issues, and we look forward to helping them work towards their mission.”
“Since its inception, Jumo Health has differentiated itself by embracing storytelling as a means to increase health literacy across disparate groups, ensuring patients can understand their journey thanks to those that came before them,” said Kevin Aniskovich, President and CEO of Jumo Health. “This investment will provide the requisite industry expertise to speed product development, expand key customer relationships, and usher in a new way of thinking about access and ongoing patient participation in clinical research.”
“The Falfurrias team sees great potential in the clinical trial space,” said Geordie Pierson, Partner at Falfurrias. “It’s an area in need of tremendous attention. There’s a real opportunity to leverage Jumo Health’s foundational core in health literacy and expand its capabilities to form a broader, content-driven clinical trial offering that better serves patients, doctors, and researchers alike.”
Equity for this investment comes from Falfurrias Capital Partners V, an operationally focused lower middle market buyout fund, and builds on the firm’s experience in marketing and communications.
Houlihan Lokey represented Falfurrias in this transaction, and Holland & Knight served as legal advisors. Jumo Health was represented by Canaccord Genuity LLC throughout this process.
About Falfurrias
Falfurrias Capital Partners is an operationally focused middle-market private equity fund focused on investing in high-growth companies in the food manufacturing, industrial technology, and business services sectors. The team is comprised of investors and proven operators, as well as in-house resources across strategy & market insights, finance & integration, human capital, and technology. The fund is managed by Falfurrias Management Partners, a Charlotte-based private equity firm founded in 2006 by Hugh McColl Jr., former chairman and CEO of Bank of America; Marc Oken, former CFO of Bank of America; and Managing Partner Ed McMahan. The firm has raised $2.2 billion across six funds and invests in growing, middle-market businesses in sectors where the firm’s operational resources, relationships, and sector expertise can be employed to complement portfolio company executive teams in support of growth objectives. For more information, visit www.falfurrias.com.
About Jumo Health
Jumo Health develops age-appropriate, culturally relevant, and relatable educational resources for patients and caregivers. We have experience serving diverse populations, covering more than 160 health topics across 80+ countries in 120+ languages. Our various digital, video, and print offerings use highly visual elements and research-backed health literacy strategies to ensure that everyone can understand and act upon complex medical information. We do this through familiar mediums – from comic books and animation, to virtual reality experiences and authentic documentary-style patient stories – all customized based on audience. Jumo Health collaborates globally with more than 180 advocacy groups and community organizations to promote access and to ensure unique patient experiences are accurately represented.
