Digital chronic disease management company Livongo today announced that it has acquired Retrofit, a company that specializes in weight-management and disease prevention programs.
“Retrofit and Livongo are like-minded in strategy, values and culture. Together, we will provide a comprehensive set of solutions for the prevention and treatment of chronic conditions that address the whole person,” Mary Pigatti, CEO of Retrofit, said in a statement. “This move strengthens our ability to bring personalized solutions to our clients and members.”
The acquisition will give Livongo customers access to Retrofit’s Diabetes Prevention Program. The move will also help Mountain View-based company expand its service, which gives users a ‘nudge’ to remember certain positive behaviors, by integrating more healthcare professionals into the system including weight-management and nutritional services. These services could include personalized coaching from registered dietitians, exercise physiologists and behavior coaches.
Livongo will also get access to Retrofit’s data insights, expert coaches and proprietary lifestyle factor segmentation, which is used to personalize care.
“Retrofit has built strong, evidence-based, offerings in weight management and disease prevention and brings a great group of committed people. We’re excited to welcome their team into the Livongo family,” Glen Tullman, CEO of Livongo, said in a statement. “For our members, we now have more services that make it easier to prevent individuals from getting sick and, if they do, working with them to return to health and stay healthy. And for our clients, we’re now addressing the comprehensive health challenges their employees face, with the goal of caring for each as a whole person.”
Currently, Retrofit offers personalized coaching, where participants can interact with a healthcare professional through videoconferencing and get proactive feedback on their personal dashboard. Customers have 24-7 access to a health coach through messaging. The company also offers a mobile platform. In this platform users can log their food—one option lets users take a picture of their meal as a logging mechanism. In the past Retrofit has partnered with big names on diabetes initiatives, such as Solera and RedBrick Health.
This has been a big month for Livongo. Last week the company announced that it raised $105 million in new Series E funding. Tullman said the funding will help support growth and scale as well as new investments in data science and crucially, expanding the portfolio of diseases the company can address.
"Basically what we want is we want to be the one-stop shop for people who have a chronic condition," Tullman said in a statement. "What our customers are saying is ‘We love the innovation, we just can’t deal with five different companies coming in with five different solutions. This doesn’t work for us. And what we need is one company that does it all.’ So that’s what we’re doing."
