Cogent Health Solutions today announced that serial entrepreneurs responsible for building three of British Columbia’s most successful health and technology companies – ALI Technologies, Creo, and MDS Laboratories - have partnered to finance and play strategic roles in establishing Cogent as the leader in the cancer survivorship data management market. A $3.0 million venture financing from Yaletown Venture Partners and angel investors is backing the team as it prepares to launch with major US-based healthcare partners.
Cogent has been operating in stealth mode for over a year under CEO Len Grenier, a serial healthcare technology entrepreneur. Grenier is best known as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of ALI Technologies – a leading healthcare software developer acquired by McKesson for $530 million in 2002. “With the guidance of my advisors and early partners in this business – proven company-builders like ALI Technologies former CEO, Greg Peet, MDS Labs founder and Chairman, Don Rix, and Amos Michelson, former CEO of Creo Inc. – Cogent has been refining its strategy and collaborating with major US healthcare vendors and customers in preparation for the launch of our Equicare Cancer Survivorship Management Solution.”
There are currently over 14,000,000 cancer survivors living in the Unites States alone and that figure will grow by 10% with new cases diagnosed this year. Dramatic advancements in early detection and treatment methods mean that two of every three cancer survivors are still living five years after treatment. “Managing treatment workflows and data for survivorship care - the third leg of the three-legged cancer treatment stool following detection and intervention – is critical to improving long-term outcomes for patients, physicians, and the economics of the healthcare system” said Hans Knapp, general partner with Vancouver-based Yaletown Venture Partners. “The need is compelling and so is the business opportunity.”
“We’ve assembled a team with outstanding credentials that can tackle a problem that rests squarely in the path of efficiencies necessary to advance post-treatment cancer care management” added Grenier, “and the financial resources and board expertise we gain with this financing are key to taking Cogent to the next level.” Joining the company’s board are Amos Michelson, CEO of Creo Inc. until its recent sale to Kodak, and Hans Knapp, co-founder and general partner of Yaletown Venture Partners.
Cogent will be announcing industry and customer partnerships shortly.
About Cogent Health Solutions:
Cogent is a developer of disease case management software, solutions, and services for health care providers, patients and patient families. Improved survivorship care is critical to managing outcomes of life threatening diseases like cancer. The promise of more effective surveillance and ongoing structured evidence-based care, will provide for better patient outcomes, and healthcare system efficiency gains. This is the opportunity that fuels our drive to achieve. Cogent is focused on setting the new benchmark for patient management in cancer treatment facilities around the globe.
www.cogentHS.com
About Yaletown Venture Partners:
Backed by leading institutional investors in Canada and the United States, Yaletown Ventures Partners focuses on early-stage technology investments in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest from its base in Vancouver, British Columbia. Yaletown is a hard working partner-of-choice for experienced technology entrepreneurs starting new companies and venture investment partners seeking quality deal opportunities. Yaletown’s four general partners bring an extensive network of contacts and a combined eighty years of early-stage company-building and transaction expertise to each portfolio company.
www.yaletown.com
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