5 Elms $27M investment into Motivity
How does the Motivity investment affect the ABA Platform Landscape?
Motivity, a provider of clinical SaaS solutions for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) providers, has announced a $27 million investment from Five Elms Capital. While this marks a major milestone for the company, the key question remains: where does Motivity fit within the ABA technology landscape, and how will it compete or collaborate with existing platforms?
Motivity’s Market Position
Since its founding in 2012, Motivity has focused on enhancing clinical effectiveness and data-driven decision-making in ABA therapy. However, despite serving 550 organizations across seven countries, the company has yet to publicly announce any of the top 35 ABA providers as customers. Instead, Motivity primarily caters to smaller and mid-sized ABA firms, with more than a dozen known ABA provider customers publicly named in its portfolio.
With only 38 employees on LinkedIn, Motivity is significantly smaller than established ABA technology vendors like CentralReach, Rethink, or Therapy Brands. This new investment should enable them to hire more resources and develop features at scale.
Motivity’s Core Offerings
Motivity provides a clinical SaaS platform designed to support ABA providers with a focus on data collection, analytics, and clinical decision support. Their solutions include:
Clinical Data Collection & Management – A structured system for therapists to document session data, track progress, and analyze treatment effectiveness.
AI-Driven Clinical Decision Support – AI-powered insights to help ABA providers make data-driven treatment decisions.
Caregiver Engagement Tools – Tools that facilitate collaboration between therapists and caregivers to improve therapy effectiveness.
Analytics & Reporting – Advanced dashboards and analytics that enhance treatment planning and compliance tracking.
Workflow Automation – Reducing administrative burdens through automated processes that improve data accuracy and streamline operations.
Motivity positions itself as a specialized clinical tool rather than a full-scale practice management solution, making partnerships essential for broader adoption.
Current and Potential Partnerships
Motivity has already established partnerships with several practice management platforms, including AlohaABA, Lumary, and Measure PM, which rely on strong clinical documentation solutions. These partnerships position Motivity as a complementary clinical tool rather than a direct competitor to all-in-one practice management platforms.
Beyond these existing partnerships, Motivity may seek to expand its ecosystem by collaborating with:
Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) Solutions: Since Motivity specializes in clinical data, integrating with RCM platforms could create a seamless connection between clinical documentation and claims processing. This could reduce claim denials by ensuring that therapy session documentation is aligned with payor requirements. Additionally, Motivity’s AI-driven insights could enhance reimbursement strategies by helping providers optimize their billing workflows.
Other Practice Management Platforms: While it already works with AlohaABA, Lumary, and Measure PM, Motivity may pursue integrations with other mid-market platforms to broaden its reach.
Key Competitors
While the ABA clinical software space remains relatively open, Motivity does face competition from other clinical data collection and analytics platforms:
CentralReach: The dominant player in the ABA market, which already offers clinical data collection and AI-driven workflow automation, making it difficult for Motivity to break into larger enterprise ABA firms.
Direct Clinical Competitors: Companies like Catalyst, Hi Rasmus, and Theralytics are already embedded into many providers' workflows.
Emerging Solutions: Newer entrants into the ABA clinical space could challenge Motivity as AI-driven solutions and automation become more prominent.
Motivity vs. Frontera Health: Competing for the Future of ABA Tech
Motivity’s $27M investment puts it in competition with Frontera Health, but the two take very different approaches to clinical data and AI-driven decision support. Despite their differences, both are ultimately trying to displace CentralReach and will rely on practice management partnerships to expand.
🔹 Clinical Data & AI Approaches
Motivity follows a traditional ABA model, using therapist-entered data, structured session notes, and dashboards for clinical decision support.
Frontera uses a video-based AI model, analyzing recorded sessions to generate insights and measure therapy outcomes.
🔹 Market & Positioning
Motivity targets small to mid-sized ABA providers and already partners with AlohaABA, Lumary, and Measure PM.
Frontera is targeting larger providers and payors, positioning itself as an AI-driven reimbursement and outcomes tool.
🔹 Practice Management & Billing Implications
Since neither offers a full practice management suite, they must partner with existing platforms to challenge CentralReach.
Motivity may integrate with RCM tools to strengthen claims documentation, while Frontera’s video-driven model could appeal to payors looking for objective outcome data.
As payors demand more data-driven proof of clinical outcomes, Frontera may gain traction. But Motivity’s familiar, clinician-controlled approach could make it the preferred choice for ABA providers not yet ready to shift to AI-driven video analysis. The real battle will be who secures the best practice management partnerships first.
Challenges Ahead
Motivity’s investment will enable product innovation and team expansion, but challenges remain:
Breaking into larger ABA providers: It must convince larger firms to adopt its platform or integrate into existing ecosystems.
Scaling operations: Motivity will need to grow quickly to meet the demands of its expanding client base.
Defining its role: Will it remain a standalone clinical platform, or will it pursue deeper integrations with practice management software?
What’s Next for Motivity?
Motivity plans to ramp up research and development efforts, focusing on AI-driven insights, advanced clinical decision-support tools, and solutions to enhance caregiver engagement. The company will also strengthen its enterprise capabilities to support the evolving needs of larger ABA organizations.
However, its long-term success will depend on how well it positions itself in the ABA platform landscape—whether through partnerships, integrations, or direct competition with established players.
Final Thoughts
Motivity’s $27 million investment is a significant moment in ABA technology, but the road ahead will require strategic decision-making. Will it remain a niche clinical platform for smaller providers, or will it break into the enterprise market through integrations and partnerships?