Google Ventures' reported $100 million investment in oncology Big Data startup Flatiron Health came to fruition this week. And the deal is even bigger than early reports suggested, with Flatiron raising $130 million and buying electronic medical record (EMR) business Altos Solutions.
The bulk of the funding is being provided by Google's ($GOOG) venture capital wing, with existing investors First Round Capital and LabCorp ($LH) also chipping in. An undisclosed chunk of the cash will go toward buying Altos, an oncology EMR software provider. Bill Maris, managing partner with Google Ventures, told The Wall Street Journal "Altos is like rocket fuel for Flatiron," notably by giving it access to a system that collects cancer data from 550,000 patients a year.
Fortune reports that Flatiron's systems will continue to work with other EMR vendors, much the way its founders' previous company--advertising technology startup Invite Media--remained platform-agnostic after being bought by Google. In a blog post, Flatiron's founders said Altos brings smart data capture capabilities. And with Flatiron's ability to give life science companies useful data and analytics, growing as it adds more records, this should further its ambition of speeding cancer research.
For Google, the investment is yet another step into healthcare. The deal is Google Ventures' largest medical software deal and the fourth largest round in which it has ever participated. Having made the investment, Google's Andy Conrad--who works at its experimental [x] facility--will join Flatiron's board. The board oversees a rapidly growing company, with Flatiron planning to double its headcount to 60 people this year and add the 60 staff working at Altos to its ranks.
- read the WSJ article (sub. req.)
- here's Fortune's item
- and the blog post