Philips acquires parenthood-focused app maker Health & Parenting

By Heather Mack
05:09 pm
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In another move to solidify its’ presence in consumer digital health, Royal Philips has acquired London-based Health & Parenting Ltd, a developer of healthcare and family-focused mobile apps. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition will serve to bolster Philips’ uGrow digital parenting platform, which features a pregnancy and infant-tracking app that connects with a range of smart baby products including the Philips Avent Smart Baby monitor. Health & Parenting, which was founded and 2012, offers several apps for expectant and new parents including the popular Pregnancy+ app, which the company says has been downloaded over 12 million times across iPhone and Android. Philips will integrate all Health & Parenting’s applications into the uGrow platform, which works with Philips’ cloud-enabled ecosystem of digital health devices and apps collectively know as the Health Suite Digital Platform.

“This acquisition fits perfectly in our digital strategy to help expectant and new parents understand and support their baby’s healthy development, through a series of connected digital products with the uGrow application at the core,” Egbert van Acht, Philips’ business leader in the Health & Wellness division, said in a statement. “With Health & Parenting, we will strengthen our digital offering in pregnancy and parenting, and increase the scale of our global parenting platform that provides consumer and professional care.”

Philips has been pushing deeper into the consumer health space over the past year with a few key moves. In August 2016, the company launched its suite of clinically-validated health monitoring devices including a health watch, connected scale, blood pressure monitory and thermometer, all of which connect to the HealthSuite Health App. The HealthSuite cloud also supports Philips’ enterprise projects, such as the Population Health Management business groups that Philips built up with an acquisition of Wellcentive last year.

While Philips’ uGrow app is squarely aimed at consumers, it is a registered medical device in the European Union.  

“We are delighted to join Philips and continue our successful app development work as part of a strong global team,” Health & Parenting CEO John Miles said in a statement. “We set up Health & Parenting to make a positive difference to the lives of millions of pregnant women and new parents worldwide. In Philips we found a like-minded organization and we look forward to the integration of our parenting apps into Philips’ uGrow platform, and to support millions of its users through each family stage.”

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