MedPal AI - Acquisition of Solid State Technologies - the missing piece of MedPal's Health OS
Digital health business MedPal AI (AIM: MPAL) has confirmed the acquisition of Solid State Technologies, trading as eMARx, a UK provider of electronic medication administration record (eMAR) software to care homes and pharmacies. This acquisition was previously revealed at the start of July alongside the firm’s £5 million placing, with this announcement providing further colour on the deal.
About eMARx
Founded in 2020, eMARx provides a digital system of record for medication administration in care homes. Under the system, every dose for every resident is scheduled, barcode-verified, recorded and auditable in real time, replacing paper charts and reducing the risk of errors - error reduction is an important part of patient care and a key focus of MedPal’s wider services.
eMARx is a profitable business which generates most of its revenue from recurring monthly software subscriptions. Its customer base spans national care groups, including care home provider Care UK, pharmacy groups, and a long tail of independent care homes. This gives MedPal an immediate installed client base and a proven product to roll out across the wider market, also giving the opportunity to expand beyond the company’s existing relationship with Care UK.
For the year ended 31st March 2026, eMARx generated unaudited revenue of £739,231, up from £621,785 in 2025, and made a profit after tax of £106,273 (down slightly from 2025’s £145,644). We would note that the recent placing announcement mentioned some even better figures, with management accounts (to 31st May 2026) showing annualised revenue of c.£843,000 and annualised profit of c.£307,000.
Initial consideration for the deal is c.£0.38 million, with an initial £133,066 in cash and 7,272,834 new MedPal shares. In addition, a completion accounts adjustment of c.£94,000, to be settled 35/65 in cash/shares respectively, is expected to be issued by the end of July, making the total consideration approximately £0.47 million. So the deal has been done at less than 1 times historic revenues and just over 4 times historic profits, with additional strategic benefits expected, as discussed below.
Encouragingly, of the six people employed by eMARx, all will be joining the enlarged MedPal business. What’s more, all seven eMARx shareholders, including five members of the operating team, become locked-in MedPal shareholders, aligning the team with MedPal’s roll-out plans.
Strategic Rationale
MedPal has described the eMARx deal as the “missing piece” of its health operating system (OS). After adding eMARx to its infrastructure the group now combines: NHS pharmacy dispensing at scale; a B2B care home supply business; a private clinic; the Juno agentic AI health companion; and now the software layer that sits inside care homes themselves.
MedPal's directors believe this makes it the only provider able to offer care homes an integrated eMAR platform, pharmacy supply from its robotic dispensing hub at the recently opened Sarus Court in Runcorn, and agentic AI support, all in a single service designed to deliver better outcomes for residents.
Typically, any eMAR type service is a discrete cost borne by care homes. But by incorporating this into its operating system, MedPal will be able to offer it at a discount or even zero cost, providing that the company's pharmacy services are used exclusively by the care home. MedPal hopes this will be attractive for care homes and will improve pharmacy revenues, along with care home customer acquisition and retention rates.
Care homes offer a large market for MedPal to continue expanding into. The UK market comprises c.16,500 care homes with around 530,000 registered beds and close to half a million residents, and was independently valued at approximately £27 billion in 2025/26, with demand projected to require tens of thousands of additional beds over the next decade (1).
The NHS in England spent £21.6 billion on medicines in 2024/25, of which c.£10.3 billion was prescribed in primary care (2). Within that, c.331,000 care home residents aged 65 and over receive NHS prescriptions each month, the average resident is prescribed 6.8 medicines per month and more than one in five is on ten or more medicines (3).
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Sources
1. carehome.co.uk register data, November 2025; LaingBuisson Care Homes for Older People UK Market Report, 2026.
2. NHS Business Services Authority, Prescribing Costs in Hospitals and the Community, England 2024/25; Department of Health and Social Care, CPCF settlements.
3. NHSBSA, Prescribing for care home patients aged 65 and over, 2024/25; NHS England.
Disclosures
MedPal AI is a corporate client of Optimo Research Ltd.
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