Two diabetes management companies, Mountain View, California-based Glooko and Gothenburg, Sweden-based Diasend, will merge into a unified company, leveraging the global capabilities of Diasend and the user-friendly platform of Glooko.
The joint solution, which will operate under the Glooko name, will now serve 4,000 diabetes clinics in 23 countries across 15 languages. The joint platform downloads data from more than 160 different devices, including glucose meters, insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitors and activity trackers, accounting for 95 percent of diabetes devices used worldwide.
“Glooko and Diasend are the dominant players in their respective markets. Due to the differences in our products (and competition in general) both companies have had significant demand from the opposite market (Glooko from EU, Diasend in USA),” Vikram Singh, Glooko’s product analytics and marketing manager said in an email to MobiHealthNews. “Rather than expand each company’s international presence, it made more sense to merge.”
Glooko offers a remote patient monitoring platform across web and mobile, syncing with over 50 diabetes devices and major fitness and activity trackers. Diasend works to optimize diabetes via transmitting, storing and analyzing data from more than 140 different glucose meters, insulin pumps, CGM systems and activity trackers.
Singh said the newly combined entity plans to merge products over the next year, ultimately delivering a single product line into the market. They also plan to continue to provide access data from more than 160 different diabetes devices.
“Our technologies complement each other very well and so do our teams,” Singh said. “Both Glooko and Diasend see population health and remote patient monitoring as playing a leading role in diabetes care. It’s the only way to scale…together, we can scale very quickly.”
Glooko brings a strong user interface (particularly on Android and iOS mobile devices) reputable data analytics and reporting, population tracking for remote monitoring and telemedicine, FDA 510(k) clearance on hardware and software fronts, and partnerships with Insulet, Dexcom and Medtronic. Diasend brings a global footprint with a large patient base as well its transmitter device Diasend Clinic, and the company also has a solid understanding of the different reimbursement and clinical settings across EU single payer systems.
“This is without a doubt the best possible scenario for our two companies, as well as for patients and the care teams that serve them,” Diasend CEO Anders Sonesson said in a statement. “From our standpoint, this means adding even more functionality to an already very strong technical platform.”The companies will keep all four of their current offices – Mountain View, Chicago, London and Gothenburg. The merger has recently raised $8 million in equity financing, led by global venture capital firm Canaan Partners, to accelerate integration and sales efforts. Social Capital, Samsung Ventures and Yogen Dalal (Glooko’s founder and partner emeritus at venture capital firm Mayfield fund) also contributed financing.
Previously, Diasend partnered with Senseonics’ Eversense to enhance that company’s user experience of its device and establish a pipeline for sending data to Eversense users’ healthcare providers.
