Flatiron Health, the leading cancer research platform and oncology software, has been acquired by Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Roche for $1.9B, marking the largest NYC tech acquisition in history. According to a press release, Flatiron will continue its current business model with the entire team joining Roche. “Roche has been a tremendous partner to us over the past two years and shares our vision for building a learning healthcare platform in oncology ultimately designed to improve the lives of cancer patients. This important milestone will allow us to increase our investments in our provider-facing technology and services platform, as well as our evidence-generation platform, which will remain available to the entire healthcare industry,” said Nat Turner, Flatiron Health Cofounder and CEO.
Founded by Turner and Zach Weinberg in 2012, Flatiron had raised $313M in funding over three funding rounds with its last round coming in at $1.175B post-money valuation in 2016. Both Turner and Weinberg cofounded Invite Media, which was acquired by Google. Backers of the company include SV Angel, First Round Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, GV, Great Oaks Venture Capital, BoxGroup, Social Capital, Allen & Company, IA Ventures, David Tisch, Grape Arbor VC, Stripes Group, Baillie Gifford, Aaron Levie, Casdin Capital, LabCorp, Jack Abraham, Jared Hecht, Roche, and Edward Zimmerman. Roche previously owned $12.6% of the company prior to the acquisition.
“This is an important step in our personalized healthcare strategy for Roche, as we believe that regulatory-grade real-world evidence is a key ingredient to accelerate the development of, and access to, new cancer treatments. As a leading technology company in oncology, Flatiron Health is best positioned to provide the technology and data analytics infrastructure needed not only for Roche, but for oncology research and development efforts across the entire industry. A key principle of this is to preserve Flatiron’s autonomy and their ability to continue providing their services to all existing and future partners,” remarked Daniel O’Day, CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals.