Appoints MedTech Veteran Kathy Phlegar as CEO to Lead Next Phase of Clinical Validation and Commercial Expansion of SPARK, a Mobility Intelligence Platform

INDIANAPOLIS, IN / ACCESS Newswire / June 10, 2026 / Boomerang Ventures has made a strategic pre-seed investment in KinetiTec, an early-stage medical device and SaaS company developing SPARK^™, an in-bed mobility intelligence platform designed to reduce hospital-acquired complications and improve recovery. The investment represents a significant portion of KinetiTec's $1 million pre-seed round, with $475K committed to date. Concurrent with the investment, KinetiTec has appointed Kathy Phlegar as CEO, bringing more than 20 years of experience scaling healthcare and medtech companies across startups to Fortune 500 firms, leading commercialization, fundraising and market expansion.

KinetiTec is focused on solving one of healthcare's most persistent and costly challenges: patient immobility during hospitalization. Patients spend more than 90 percent of their inpatient time in bed, losing over 2 percent of muscle mass per day, which contributes to a cascade of preventable complications, including falls, pressure injuries, venous thromboembolism (VTE), delirium and prolonged functional decline.

One in three hospitalized patients leaves more disabled than when they were admitted. These conditions impact patient recovery and discharge disposition and place substantial financial strain on the healthcare system, contributing to an estimated $800 million in annual CMS penalties affecting 93 percent of U.S. hospitals.

KinetiTec is initially focused on two distinct, high-impact patient populations:

• Acutely ill and post-surgical adults, including those in ICU, step-down, cardiovascular, neurological, and post-operative care settings; and

• Patients aged 65 and older, especially those at increased risk of rapid deconditioning during hospitalization. Without intervention, many older patients can lose meaningful strength and function within just days of admission.

KinetiTec's flagship solution, KinetiTec SPARK^™, combines in-bed mobility hardware with cloud-based clinical intelligence to enable an objective picture of patient risk, mobility status, and activity progression. This seamlessly integrates mobility into daily clinical workflows, beyond scheduled therapy sessions.

'KinetiTec is tackling one of the most pervasive and costly blind spots in healthcare delivery. Immobility is a well-established driver of complications, costs, and patient decline, yet it is inconsistently managed. KinetiTec bridges this gap with structure, data and scalability, turning mobility into a measurable standard of care. With Kathy's leadership and the company's early validation, we believe this is the right time to accelerate growth,' said Eric Beier, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer & Partner, Boomerang Ventures.

From Clinical Insight to Scalable Infrastructure

The challenge is not a lack of awareness; it's a lack of infrastructure. Mobility remains underdosed, inconsistently tracked and difficult to operationalize across care teams. Data is often disconnected from the electronic medical record (EMR), while staffing constraints and workflow misalignment limit clinicians' ability to consistently engage patients in movement.

KinetiTec addresses these barriers by aligning mobility with how care is actually delivered:

• Continuous patient engagement that enables movement throughout the day, not just during therapy windows

• AI-driven risk stratification and mobility guidance, helping clinicians identify and prioritize high-risk patients

• Integrated data visibility, allowing care teams to track progress and discharge readiness in real time

• Cross-functional workflow support, extending physical therapy protocols into nursing and broader care delivery

This approach effectively extends the reach of physical therapy across the care continuum, transforming mobility into a coordinated, team-based effort rather than an isolated intervention.

Leadership to Drive Commercialization and Growth

'What drew me to KinetiTec is the size and prevalence of the problem and the clarity of the solution,' said Kathy Phlegar, CEO of KinetiTec. 'Having experienced the cycle of deconditioning firsthand through my mother's care, I understand how critical mobility is to recovery. SPARK integrates directly into care workflows while providing both upper- and lower-body resistance activity through a cloud-connected platform, making it fundamentally different from anything else in the market. The clinical case is built, and the cost savings to facilities are well documented.'

Phlegar brings more than two decades of experience leading growth, commercialization, and innovation across medtech organizations. She has launched multiple medtech products globally, including at Hill-Rom, led a biotech startup exit to Bruker, played a role in Somatex's acquisition by Hologic, and serves as a Venture Advisor with Good Growth Capital.

Phlegar steps in as CEO at a pivotal moment as KinetiTec transitions from product development into broader health system adoption, pilot expansion and revenue growth.

'Our approach to growth is deliberate,' said Phlegar. 'We're starting in inpatient acute care and post-acute rehabilitation settings, where the need and impact are most immediate. From there, we'll expand into outpatient and other skilled nursing environments, with a long-term vision of extending mobility into the home so patients can stay engaged in their recovery every step of the way.'

Clinical Insight and Market Validation

KinetiTec's approach is grounded in both clinical insight and real-world application. The company has already published two peer-reviewed studies validating both the feasibility of its mobility platform and its proprietary immobility risk-scoring methodology, while multiple IRB-backed clinical studies continue across health systems. Pilot programs are also helping validate usability, workflow integration, and clinical impact across a range of care settings.

Interest in KinetiTec's platform continues to expand, with institutions including Johns Hopkins and Brown University Health have engaged in research discussions as the company advances its clinical evidence base.

'We've long understood the relationship between immobility and hospital-acquired complications, but operationalizing mobility at scale has remained a challenge,' said Neil Jairath, MD, Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer of KinetiTec. 'KinetiTec SPARK provides a structured, data-driven way to bring mobility into everyday care delivery, giving clinicians the tools they need to proactively manage risk and support recovery.'

With a total addressable market estimated at $4.4 billion ARR across hospital, rehabilitation, and post-acute care settings, KinetiTec is positioned to expand rapidly as health systems increasingly prioritize solutions that improve patient recovery while strengthening financial performance.

KinetiTec has also established a reimbursement strategy spanning direct hospital and post-acute SNF sales, remote therapeutic monitoring, and a long-term durable medical equipment (DME) pathway-designed to expand payer access at each stage of growth.

No existing product combines SPARK's bed-mounted design, simultaneous dual-limb resistance capability, AI-driven clinical software, and cloud data infrastructure in a single platform-a gap KinetiTec is purpose-built to fill.

KinetiTec's competitive advantage extends beyond its hardware to a multi-layered platform approach that includes:

• Proprietary AI-driven software for patient-specific risk assessment and mobility guidance

• Integrated data infrastructure that captures and builds a growing clinical and economic dataset

• Intellectual property protection, including a patented bed-mounted mobility device

• Robust clinical validation strategy supported by published research and ongoing pilots

Roadmap Ahead

With support from Boomerang Ventures, KinetiTec is entering a defined 12-18-month growth phase:

• 2026: Expanding pilot programs across acute care and rehabilitation settings while advancing peer-reviewed research and early outcomes data

• Late 2026 - 2027: Scaling commercialization efforts, including health system adoption, distributor onboarding, and broader market entry

• Ongoing: Enhancing AI-driven analytics, advancing EMR integration, and strengthening clinical decision-support capabilities

About Boomerang Ventures

Founded in 2019, Boomerang Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on early growth-stage connected health technology companies. Leveraging a combination studio and venture fund, Boomerang provides the collaborative direction, deep industry expertise, and continuum of support founders need to take their innovations from ideation to market. Boomerang believes that better patient care begins with identifying and solving the biggest challenges in healthcare. Boomerang Ventures is proudly and strategically based in Indianapolis, where the healthcare and entrepreneurial business climate is a thriving community ripe with opportunities. With a secure niche at the intersection of health technology, studio-fund synchronization, and the Midwest, Boomerang differentiates itself from the competition. Boomerang Ventures is Healthcare Innovation, Reimagined. For more information, visit Boomerang.vc.

About KinetiTec

KinetiTec is a healthcare technology company focused on transforming patient mobility in clinical settings. Its mobility intelligence platform enables safe, effective in-bed movement combined with real-time data and clinical insights, helping care teams reduce complications, improve outcomes, and enhance patient engagement across the continuum of care. For more information, visit kinetitec.com.

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Media Contacts:

Audra Wait, President
Wait & Co. on behalf of Boomerang Ventures
[email protected] | 615-504-8812

Kathy Phlegar, Chief Executive Officer
KinetiTec Inc.
[email protected]

SOURCE: Boomerang Ventures