NYC's Big Digital Health Exits in 2019

As part of NYCHBL’s annual venture event, Healthcare Investment Trends: Where Will the Money Flow in 2020?, I interviewed Glen de Vries, president, co-CEO and co-founder of Medidata and Andrew Willis, CFO & co-founder of Crossix. Both had very good years in 2019: Medidata was acquired by Dassault Systèmes for $5.7 Billion and Crossix was acquired by Veeva Systems for $550 Million.

Both of these companies were early leaders in the digital health space in NYC. Medidata launched in 1999 and Crossix in 2005. As Bessemer investor Steve Kraus posited, “The thing about East Coast companies…they are ‘overnight’ success stories that were fourteen years in the making. Timelines in healthcare are just longer because of regulatory barriers, complex stakeholders, patient privacy, and a focus on doing well by doing good.”

Talking to Glen and Andy about their successful exits was a blast!