ClearData lands $25 million in latest funding round

By Hayley Ringle, Reporter- Phoenix Business Journal
Re-posted with Permission

BJ Clear Data

Darin Brannan Provided by ClearData Darin Brannan is CEO of ClearData Networks Inc.

ClearData Networks Inc., the Tempe-based health care cloud-computing software and service provider, has closed on $25 million to expand its sales and marketing team and continue developing its software.
The Series C funding for the high-growth company was an over-subscribed amount, with the company only initially seeking $15 million to $20 million, said CEO Darin Brannan. The company closed on the deal May 18.
“We took on more than we were planning based on good terms and the right investment partners,” Brannan told me by phone Wednesday. “It’s a good time to be raising capital in this market.”

The company has seen four consecutive years of 100 percent-plus year-over-year subscription revenue growth. With this new funding, ClearData has raised $42 million in under two years.
The money came from Heritage Group, HLM Venture Partners and Flare Capital Partners, along with existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Excel Venture Management.
The company, which has more than 100 employees now, plans to hire between five and 10 new workers a month for at least six months to deepen its sales and marketing departments, Brannan said.
“We think we have the top best in class team and will be over 1,000 people in the next few years,” Brannan said.
The money also will be used to continue investing in ongoing development of its software-as-a-service platform, HealthData Cloud and SaaS IT Cloud Management. New updates and features are released every couple of weeks, Brannan said.
More than 30 major health care brands indirectly support ClearData via these new strategic health care venture capital firms, including Intermountain Healthcare, Cardinal Health and LifePoint Health.
Since ClearData works exclusively in health care, the industry is undergoing a massive tech transformation, driven by aging infrastructure, higher mobile use, health care laws, an increase in telemedicine and consumers’ desire to take more control of their diagnoses and data.
The company also is introducing major new products to address multi-cloud workloads, including its Healthcare Managed Services on Amazon Web Services, which provides enhanced health care specialization, security and compliance, and manageability.
With infrastructure needing to be modernized, that’s ClearData’s slice of the industry.
“We’re making sure you have the tools to mine that,” Brannan said. “We’re fixing the infrastructure and the security that gives consumers the confidence to use the technology and data that sits in multiple different disparate applications. This allows health care providers to mine that data to drive down costs and lead to better health care.”
HLM Venture Partners, one of the health care technology industry’s leading venture capital firms along with Heritage Group and Flare Capital Partners, will add partner Marty Felsenthal to ClearData’s board.
“Our strategic investors have a high degree of interest in ClearData,” Felsenthal said in a statement. “They recognize the benefits of cost reduction and enhanced security that a dedicated health care cloud solutions vendor can provide, particularly as more and more data in health care is created and analyzed so health care organizations can position themselves for success in a value-based reimbursement environment.”
In an October 2014 report, Frost & Sullivan estimates the total U.S. health care cloud market revenue is $900 million. ClearData projects IT cloud penetration in the U.S. health care industry will grow to 50 percent in the next four to five years, representing $6.5 billion of a $13 billion market for multi-cloud computing and managed services.

ClearData opened offices in San Francisco and San Antonio over the past year.

About the Reporter:

Hayley Ringle covers technology and startups for the Phoenix Business Journal.

Read the original story at http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/blog/techflash/2015/05/cleardata-lands-25-million-in-latest-funding-round.html

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