Health IT company Welltok is capping a busy two-year streak of acquisitions and financing with another deal. The Denver-based maker of software that aims to keep users healthy is acquiring Burlington, MA-based Silverlink Communications for an undisclosed price.
Welltok has raised a $45 million round of venture capital to help make the deal happen. The funding, which will also be used for product development and market expansion, came from Toronto-based Georgian Partners, EDBI (the corporate investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board), and Boston-based Flare Capital, as well as other existing institutional and strategic investors.
Since early 2014, Welltok has been buying other companies to complement its health optimization software, called CaféWell. The program uses social, gaming, and cognitive techniques to try to engage users with health and condition management, the company says.
With Silverlink, Welltok is gaining technology that allows companies such as health plans or government agencies like Medicare to communicate with and potentially influence consumers, the company says. Through a test-and-learn method, Silverlink identifies the ways individuals like being messaged—be it through e-mail, text message, phone, or mail—and the type of message they like to receive, Welltok says. Presumably that could help Welltok connect with more customers and improve their health.
In October, Welltok acquired Zamzee, a health tool that attempts to engage children through games, allowing them to use an activity tracker as they attempt to complete challenges that require physical activity. A few months earlier, Welltok acquired Predilytics, another Burlington-based company, which uses machine learning and other technology to understand healthcare consumers. At the time, Predilytics said it has collected and analyzed data for 250 million people.
Welltok raised $12 million from Hearst Health Ventures and Catholic Health Initiatives in January, which filled out a $37 million round. The rest of that investment came from Bessemer Venture Partners, Emergence Capital Partners, InterWest Partners, New Enterprise Associates, and Qualcomm Ventures. The latest deal will bring the company’s total financing to approximately $134 million.
In November, Welltok announced it was successful in creating a service that combined its CaféWell tool with the IBM Watson supercomputer, a project it had been developing since 2013. The program, called CaféWell Concierge, aims to provide people with personalized recommendations about health and wellness.
The company acquired Seattle-based mobile healthcare app maker Mindbloom in early 2014.
