Sweden’s Diasend and U.S.-based Glooko are merging into one entity under the Glooko name, folding their offerings into what will eventually become one platform that will reach diabetes patients across borders and help them manage their disease.
The merger has closed, Michelle de Haaff, Glooko’s VP of marketing and customer success, told FierceMedicalDevices. The duo recently took on $8 million in capital in a round led by Canaan Partners. The funds will be used to complete the “rapid integration” of the two companies, de Haaff said. The new company now covers 4,000 diabetes clinics in 23 countries and downloads data from more than 160 different devices, according to a statement. In addition to this global reach, Diasend also brings understanding of varying clinical settings and reimbursement environments, Vikram Singh, product analytics and marketing manager at Glooko, said.
Both Glooko and Diasend set out to bring together into a single platform data from the disparate diabetes devices that are on the market, from blood glucose meters to continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps.
“Glooko spent many years working on a mobile-first approach to make it easy for somebody with diabetes to get their data into a mobile app and use it to make a daily decision,” de Haaff said. Patients may use Glooko’s platform to share their data with their healthcare provider, collaborating with their care teams to optimize care. Meanwhile, Diasend offers solutions for patients and clinics. Patients use diasend Personal to connect their devices, upload data and share it with their clinic. Clinics use diasend Clinic to collect and store their patients’ data centrally and securely.
The new company plans to eventually offer the “best from each of the two solutions” on one joint platform, de Haaff said. It will support diabetics during and between doctor visits and will include self-management and a population health platform, according to the statement. Customers will continue to use the platform they currently use, but the company will, over the next few months, begin talking to customers and identify which aspects from each platform should be integrated in the new solution, de Haaff said. It plans to launch a single, unified system in 2017.
Both companies have had a productive summer: in June, Glooko rolled out its Advise product, which recognizes patterns in a particular patient’s behavior and recommends changes to therapy, such as adjusting insulin pump settings. Also in June, Medtronic expanded its relationship with Glooko, which aims to incorporate data from Medtronic insulin pumps and CGMs into Glooko’s management platform. As for Diasend, it announced that its platform allows patients using Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre CGM--which doesn’t require fingerstick calibration--to view their CGM data alongside data from other devices, including insulin pumps and activity trackers.