The Largest Digital Health Acquisitions Ever

There are two ways a company can exit.

The first is by going public in an Initial Public Offering (IPO). When a company goes public, it’s raising money from new investors. This not only offers liquidity to investors, founders, and employees, but going public also imposes transparency and a new set of governance rules. Read more in 50 Publicly Traded Digital Health Companies.

But according to the National Venture Capital Association NVCA, IPOs of VC-backed companies are rare. The more common way to exit is via mergers and acquisitions (M&As), which have made up 92% of annual venture-backed exits from 2004 to 2021.

When an acquisition happens, the acquiring firm pays either in cash, stock, or a combination of both. Investors earn their returns based on the value of the acquisition (for instance, when WhatsApp was acquired by Meta for $19 billion, Sequoia Capital reportedly made over $3 billion, having invested $60 million initially).  

VCs have poured $116.9 billion into digital health in the decade spanning 2014-2024. But if they ever see a return on this investment is still a giant question mark. It's the multi-billion-dollar question on everyone's mind.

In this article, I’ll share a few of the most impressive acquisitions in digital health. 

But first I need to acknowledge that creating a list like this is a challenging task. Why?

• Not all companies disclose the acquisition amount upon acquisition

• Many deals often involve a mix of upfront payments and milestone-based compensation, making the exact number hard to decipher

• There's often the question of deal structure - was the company acquired for cash or equity? It’s not always clear

The lack of transparency in these aspects can cloud our understanding of the true magnitude of these acquisitions. So keep in mind that this list is by no means perfect or comprehensive. 

Also note: This list includes companies acquired for $500M+ that were privately-held and based in the U.S. at the time of acquisition, with a public source stating the acquisition amount. It does not include mergers of equals (e.g. Doctor On Demand and Grand Rounds or Truepill and LetsGetChecked), acquisitions of companies owned by private equity (e.g. Trizetto), or acquisitions of public companies (e.g. Livongo, Oak Street Health, Fitbit). 

So without further ado, here are some of the biggest digital health exits:

One Medical

Deal: Acquired by Amazon for $3.9B cash in 2022
Previous funding: $532.1M from Benchmark, GV, Maverick, JP Morgan, Carlyle Group, and others
Years to acquisition: 12
About: This tech-enabled, membership-based primary care platform gave Amazon more than 200 brick-and-mortar physicians’ offices, a subscription-based telehealth service, a proprietary electronic health record system, contracts with more than 9,000 employers, and over 800,000 members.

CareBridge

Deal: Acquired by Elevance Health for $2.7B cash in 2024
Previous funding: $180M from Oak HC/FT, Optum Ventures, CVS Ventures, Anthem Inc., and HLM Venture Partners
Years to acquisition: 4
About: CareBridge exclusively served Medicaid and dual-eligible patients with a physical or intellectual disability, receiving home and community-based services. The company enabled members, caregivers and health plans to share clinical information while providing 24/7 support and daily check-ins inside the patient’s home.

Landmark Health

Deal: Acquired by Optum for $3.2B cash in 2021
Previous funding: $60.9M from Optum, Town Hall Ventures, General Atlantic
Years to acquisition: 8
About: A comprehensive, in-home medical care company focused on the sickest and frailest populations.

Truven Health Analytics

Deal: Acquired by IBM for $2.6B cash in 2016
Previous funding: $1.4M from InvestMichigan
Years to acquisition: ~40
About: This cloud-based healthcare analytics company helped IBM add 8,500 clients to the Watson Health portfolio, including U.S. federal and state government agencies, employers, health plans, hospitals, clinicians and life sciences companies. IBM ended up selling their Watson Health business, and the products are now sold under the stand-alone brand Merative.

Iora Health

Deal: Acquired by One Medical for $2.1B all-stock deal in 2021 (before One Medical was acquired by Amazon)
Previous funding: $349.3M from .406 Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Polaris Partners, Khosla Ventures, and others
Years to acquisition: 10
About: Iora Health set out to rebuild primary care from scratch by integrating tech-based offerings to the 65-and-older population, giving One Medical expansion into the Medicare space. With $318M in revenue and 39,000 patients at the time of the deal, One Medical aimed to better position itself across every stage of life.

MDLive

Deal: Acquired by Evernorth (Cigna) for $2.03B in 2021
Previous funding: $174M from Sixth Street, Cigna Ventures, Health Care Service Corporation, Health Velocity Capital, Novo Holdings, Sutter Health, and others
Years to acquisition: 12
About: Evernorth (a subsidiary of Cigna) acquired MDLive to expand the health-care giant’s virtual care offerings.

Flatiron Health

Deal: Acquired by Roche for $1.9B cash in 2018
Previous funding: $324.9M from GV, First Round Capital, Allen & Company, Great Oaks Capital, and others
Years to acquisition: 6
About: Flatiron Health, an oncology-focused EHR company, was acquired by Roche to continue developing innovative cancer research tools and strengthen Roche's personalized healthcare strategy.

CoverMyMeds

Deal: Acquired by McKesson for $1.1B cash in 2017, including “a maximum $0.3 billion of consideration contingent upon CoverMyMeds' financial performance through the fiscal year ending in 2019”
Previous funding: $7.3M from JumpStart Ventures, Francisco Partners, and others
Years to acquisition: 11
About: This developer of electronic prior authorization technology strengthen McKesson's technology products to pharmaceutical manufacturers, clinicians and payers. It continues to operate as an independent business unit.

Trellis Rx

Deal: Acquired by CPS for $800M in 2022
Previous funding: $13.5M from Francisco Partners and Oxeon Partners
Years to acquisition: 6
About: Trellis Rx offered specialty pharmacy services for health systems looking to enhance the medication therapy experience and drive market-leading clinical outcomes for their patients with chronic and complex conditions.

PillPack

Deal: Acquired by Amazon for around $753M cash in 2018
Years to acquisition: 5
Previous funding: $118M from from Atlas Ventures, Founder Collective, CRV, Accel, and others
About: PillPack has since been integrated into Amazon Pharmacy, offering an even more comprehensive medication delivery service.

MatrixCare

Deal: Acquired by ResMed for $750M in 2018
Years to acquisition: 36
Previous funding: Unclear
About: MatrixCare provides long-term post-acute care software across skilled nursing, life plan communities, and senior living. With a “by ResMed” addition to the logo, the team seems to operate independently.

Acclara

Deal: Acquired by R1 RCM for $675M in 2023
Years to acquisition: 3
Previous funding: $11.8M
About: Provider of revenue cycle management services.

Collective Medical

Deal: Purchased by PointClickCare Technologies for “nearly $650M” in 2020 (cash/equity mix was not disclosed)
Previous funding: $47.5M from Kleiner Perkins, Bessemer Venture Partners, Maverick Ventures, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Providence Ventures, Peterson Ventures, and Epic Ventures
Years to acquisition: 15
About: PointClickCare Technologies, a post-acute electronic health record (EHR) company, acquired Collective Medical to expand its reach into care coordination across the acute, ambulatory and post-acute markets.

Patient Ping

Deal: Acquired by Appriss Health for a reported $500M in 2021
Previous funding: $18M from Kleiner Perkins and Accel
Years to acquisition: 8
About: Appriss Health, known for its prescription drug monitoring analytics, acquired PatientPing to bulk up its care coordination software.

Support my work and download the List of Digital Health Companies. This list includes:

🦄 Unicorns

• List of active private digital health companies valued at $1B+

• Year they became a "unicorn"

• Plus dozens of former unicorns, and when and why they were de-listed

🏦 Publicly Traded

• List of current publicly traded digital health companies

• Includes company name, ticker, exchange, exit year, and IPO vs SPAC

• Includes IPO nd current market cap

• Plus, dozens that were delisted, acquired, or went bankrupt

🤝 M&A

• List of digital health companies that have been acquired for $100M+

• Includes acquirer, cash/equity mix, and total acquisition value

• Includes year founded, years to exit, and previous VC funding

Download includes both .xls and .pdf.