Datavant, a data sharing technology startup for providers and life science companies, last week closed $40 million in Series B funding. Transformation Capital headlined the raise, which saw contributions from new backers Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC and Cigna Ventures in addition to those of prior investors Roivant Sciences and Flex Capital.
All told, the new funding brings Datavant's lifetime raise to $83 million.
WHAT THEY DO
The San Francisco company looks to facilitate secure health data exchange across its data ecosystem. So far, it's incorporated more than 350 organizations into its network, including academic medical centers, pharmaceutical companies, payers, specialty pharmacies and other health technology companies. These organizations use the free-flowing, de-identified data to research novel therapies, forecast population outcomes or conduct other real-world data health research.
"Datavant's mission is to connect the world's health data to improve patient outcomes. The fragmentation of health data across institutions holds back every part of medical research and patient care," Travis May, founder and CEO of Datavant, said in a statement. "By making it safe and easy to connect data across institutions, Datavant aspires to accelerate medical research, improve clinical trials, and ultimately enhance patient care. We have already seen real-world data make a clear difference in our understanding of the current public health crisis, and we believe that real-world data will accelerate our understanding and ability to treat other diseases."
WHAT IT'S FOR
Datavant was sparse on details on how it will use its new funds, saying only that the money will help the company continue its work toward its goal of promoting a low-friction healthcare data ecosystem.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Data sharing has long been a sore spot within healthcare, with HIPAA compliance, interoperability issues and security concerns often impeding the free flow of information for treatment, research and other uses.
With that being said, the past few years have seen data-driven platforms for health research pick up steam. Aetion, Verana Health and OM1 each raised substantial funding to support their real-world evidence tools for providers, pharmas and life science customers. And in spite of some COVID-19 deadline delays, many in the space are looking forward to the data sharing implications of the Office of the National Coordinator's long-awaited final rules on health data interoperability, information blocking and data-driven innovation.
