Sprint Accelerator graduate acquired by medical giant

A large California-based health care provider recently announced that it acquired Medicast, a graduate of the Kansas City-based Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator program.

Providence St. Joseph Health purchased the firm for an undisclosed amount for its logistics and management platform that automates remote care delivery. In 2014, Medicast participated in the inaugural, three-month program at the Techstars-led Sprint Accelerator program, based in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District.

“I’m thrilled to announce that Medicast has been acquired by Providence, and that we will be joining the system’s strategy and innovation group,” the company wrote in a blog post. “We’re super excited about the value that Providence sees in our technology and our team, and we intend to continue building great new features into our platform.”

Medicast said that its platform will be a central component to Providence’s broader strategy to provide more convenient in-person and virtual care. In 2014, Boulder-based Techstars partnered with Providence to mentor and grow mobile health startups that could help foster a more innovative mindset in the company.

In June, Providence Health Services, based in Renton, Wash., and St. Joseph Health, based in Irvine, Calif., merged to form the nation’s third-largest nonprofit health system. Providence operates a $150 million venture capital fund, which aims to spur innovation within its operations.  

Founded in 2012, Medicast is a team of three people and is led by CEO Sam Zebarjadi. Medicast expressed gratitude to its partners as part of its announcement, including those in Kansas City that helped it achieve success.

“Thank you to our investors, early adopters and supporters for believing in us from our earliest steps,” the company wrote. “Special thanks also to our mentors and advisors, including Techstars and StartUp Health, for helping us contribute to the reimagination of healthcare.”

The status of the Kansas City-based Sprint Accelerator is still in limbo. Techstars’ contract with Sprint expired after its latest cohort of 10 startups, which finished the three-month program in May.

Techstars’ outgoing managing director John Fein said that Techstars is hopeful to retain an accelerator in Kansas City and is still in discussions with a number of corporate partners. No formal decisions have been made, but the Techstars team is hoping to soon make meaningful headway on a partnership.

“Techstars is taking a very consultative approach with what the next program is going to look like,” Fein said. “We’re trying to figure out what would be the best fit for the next version of the Techstar accelerator in Kansas City. While we’re still fairly early in that process, we’d like to have an accelerator in Kansas City in 2017 and to make that happen, we do have to start getting into deeper discussions with corporate partners in the near future.”