Health tech M&A moves: Well Health’s $45M Series C, GigHealth2/UpHealth’s $1.35 bn ‘blank check’ acquisition

Santa Barbara, California-based Well Health, a patient communication platform that connects patients and providers through the care experience including the home, earlier this week announced a $45 million Series C funding round, bringing total funds raised to $75 million since its founding in 2015. The lead investor is Lead Edge Capital, with Martin Ventures plus previous funders Jackson Square Ventures, Health Velocity Capital, Summation Health Ventures, Structure Capital and Freestyle Capital. Their target markets are providers, payers, and accountable care organizations (ACOs). Well Health’s CEO/founder Guillaume de Zwirek, claimed that annually 200,000 healthcare providers use the platform to send more than 1 billion messages with 30+ million patients.

Well Health also announced Dana Gelb Safran, Sc.D. as Senior Vice President, Value Based Care and Population Health. She was previously with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Well Health release, Mobihealthnews

GigCapital2 Inc., a publicly-traded US special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) or ‘blank check’ company, has agreed to merge with UpHealth Holdings Inc and Cloudbreak Health LLC to create a digital healthcare company valued at $1.35 billion. According to their release, UpHealth is expected to generate over $190M in revenue and $24M in EBITDA next year; 69% of the 2021 incremental revenue growth is already contracted. The combined company will be named UpHealth, Inc. and trade on the NYSE under UPH.

The new company will be organized in four lines across population health management and telehealth: Integrated Care Management, Global Telehealth, Digital Pharmacy, and Tech-enabled Behavioral Health. Global Telehealth under the Cloudbreak brand claims 100,000 encounters per month on over 14,000 video endpoints at over 1,800 healthcare venues nationwide, with telepsychiatry, telestroke, tele-urology, and other specialties.

GigCapital2 previously raised $150 million in an IPO in June 2019. It will raise an additional $160 million as a private investment in a public equity, or PIPE, transaction. GigCapital is located in Palo Alto and is led by CEO/President Dr. Raluca Dinu and Executive Chairman Dr. Avi Katz. The roots of the company are interestingly in the companies ultimately rolled up into GigPeak, which was sold to Newark NJ-based telecom company IDT Corporation in 2017.

‘Blank check’ acquisition companies are becoming a popular way for digital health companies to go public without the fuss and bother of the necessary and expensive filings, SEC review, financing, etc. of an IPO. In August, SOC Telemed went this route in the other direction, acquiring a SPAC [TTA 4 August]. Hims, Augmedix, and Clover Health also went public through SPACs.The former principals of Livongo, post-Teladoc, are also forming a SPAC [TTA 30 Oct]. Reuters, Fierce Healthcare

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