Computer manufacturer IBM has agreed to acquire Explorys, a US-based healthcare IT services provider spun out of non-profit academic medical centre Cleveland Clinic, for an undisclosed amount.
Explorys, spun out in 2009, operates a cloud-computing platform with databases about diseases, treatments and outcomes.
The technology is used by 26 healthcare systems in the US, spanning more than 315 billion clinical, financial and operational data points for some 50 million patients across 360 hospitals and 317,000 healthcare providers.
IBM announced the acquisition at the same time as it unveiled the Watson Health Cloud, a secure and open platform for doctors, researchers, insurers and healthcare and wellness companies. Explorys’ data and technology will be used to strengthen the platform’s analytics and cognitive computing capabilities.
Explorys received $11.5m in a 2011 series C round co-led by venture capital firms Austin Ventures and Foundation Medical Partners that also featured Santé Ventures and Cleveland Clinic Innovations, Cleeveland Clinic’s early-stage investment unit.
Cleveland Clinic Innovations and Santé Ventures provided $2.5m in series B funding in 2010, the year after Cleveland Clinic Innovations and 23Bell Innovations, an invention capital fund led by Explorys’ co-founders, funded a $1m series A round.