Dive Brief:
- Castlight Health, Inc., a San Francisco-based health information firm, has announced the acquisition of software company Jiff, Inc. Castlight helps employees choose healthcare providers, programs and care to save on healthcare costs. The company says Jiff has the largest system of health partnerships in the healthcare market
- Castlight says that for HR executives and benefits specialists, the combined company will be able to engage with employees, purchase and use a broad range of benefits technologies and measure outcomes more efficiently.
- John Doyle will become CEO and Derek Newell will be president of the combined company. The merger is expected to generate between $138 and $142 million in revenue this year.
Dive Insight:
The acquisition is yet another important development in the high-growth health benefits tech sector as we enter 2017. While it's important to keep tabs on frequent news makers like Fitbit and Virgin Pulse, mobile-first platforms like Jiff will compete heavily for their own share of the growing benefits software market.
"It’s clear that the wellness market is consolidating in interesting ways and from different directions," Henry Albrecht, CEO of wellness software company Limeade, told HR Dive. Albrecht says the industry as a whole has yet to deliver a large amount of "year-round well-being experiences" to employees.
Employees already make use of mobile devices for accessing corporate training and other modules, so it won't be surprising to see HR departments creating the same initiatives for benefits tech. Expect personalization and ease of use to take center stage moving forward.