Medify, a Seattle startup that helps people find detailed medical information about diseases, has been acquired in a deal of undisclosed size by Alliance Health Networks. Based in Salt Lake City, Alliance Health operates niche-oriented social networks for more than three dozen diseases.
Its most popular site is Diabetic Connect, described as the largest social network for those suffering from diabetes. Alliance Health raised $11 million in funding last year from New World Ventures, Physic Ventures, Highway 12 Ventures and EPIC Ventures.
Medify is backed by Voyager Capital, having raised $1.8 million from the Seattle venture capital firm and others last year. It was started by Derek Streat — a former employee at AdReady and Classmates.com — who learned in 2009 that his two-year-old daughter was facing a life-threatening autoimmune disease.
“Despite having world-class doctors, finding all the answers we wanted, especially those backed by data from real patients like my daughter, was difficult,” Streat told GeekWire last year. “Making sense of it was nearly impossible. And knowing what to do with it, even more daunting.”
As we’ve noted in the past, there’s been an awful lot of activity in the so-called Health 2.0 sector recently, including the arrival of companies such as EveryMove, Habit Labs, Mindbloom, Keas and others.
UPDATE: Streat tells GeekWire that Alliance Health plans to bolster the operations in the Seattle area.
“Alliance is making a pretty big commitment to the area as it makes Seattle it’s technology hub; so lots of growth on the way,” said Streat.
Streat also added that the Medify acquisition marks the 5th exit for him and co-founder Jay Bartot. They’ve also been involved in companies such as Classmates, Farecast, Netbot and Adrelevance.
