ASX-listed tech company MedAdvisor has acquired rival startup Healthnotes for $5.5 million as it looks to become Australia’s leading medication management platform.
As announced through a post on the ASX, MedAdvisor will be buying its competitor for $5.5 million, paid as 60% cash and 40% scrip.
MedAdvisor offers a free smartphone and internet app focusing on helping patients to take medicine at the right dosages, and recently expanded to include both GPs and pharmacies on its platform.
Healthnotes is a Melbourne-based startup that helps manage patients’ messaging and medical adherence and has a large list of partner pharmacies.
MedAdvisor CEO Rob Read says the acquisition will allow his company to “dramatically” scale its offering to patients.
“Healthnotes was the incumbent player in this market until MedAdvisor came along and they’ve got a very good market position with a large number of pharmacies,” Read tells StartupSmart.
“For us it was a logical choice to both dramatically increase our scale and to advance our business by 12 months.”
MedAvisor’s shares jumped by more than 8% following the announcement, with the startup now boasting a market cap of more than $15 million.
Through the acquisition and integrating Healthnotes’ users and partners, MedAdvisor will now have more than 4000 GPs on its platform, 1700 nursing homes and reach more than 500,000 Australian patients.
“This acts as a launching pad for us in terms of pharmacies and GPs,” Read says.
“We’ve just finished building and are beta testing our GP link, and they have extensive connections with 4000 GPs. Penetrating that market can be a challenge so to have a head start is a very good thing for our patients ultimately.
“It will help to make patients’ lives simpler and easier and that’s what we’re all about.”
Read says the two platforms will eventually by integrated, and Healthnotes employees will be joining the MedAdvisor team.
“Their team will be coming on board and we’re excited about having the additional capability coming into the business,” he says.
“Having the two businesses come together allows both skill sets to come together and develop a really terrific platform.”
He adds that MedAdvisor will still be on the lookout for other potential acquisitions, especially when eyeing an international expansion in the coming years.
For other startups dealing with possible acquisitions, he says it’s important to always be studying the competition and to keep an open mind about all opportunities.
“It’s really important that both parties keep a very open mind and work collaboratively on how some of their plans can come together,” Read says.
“Having that openness and trust is very helpful. You need to recognise that one plus one can equal three if you bring talent and technology together.
“That’s what happened in this case.”
Denham Sadler is a former editor of StartupSmart. He was previously a journalist at the publication and has worked as a freelancer for the Guardian, the Saturday Paper and the ABC. In his spare time he likes puns and jaffles.
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