ROX Equity Partners, a UK-based private equity company, has acquired the innovative health data technology platform HealthCloud. HealthCloud, which provides universal healthcare data interoperability and intelligence, will be integrated into the Alula Technologies group that offers digital solutions to the insurance and health industries. This follows the recent acquisition by ROX of South African financial services technology provider SilverBridge. 

HealthCloud was acquired from BIC Solutions, a technology group operating in the healthcare industry in southern Africa. Through a strategic partnership, BIC will be the reseller of the HealthCloud platform and other Alula solutions in SADC countries.

“HealthCloud will form the basis of the technology, which will be used within the newly created London-based Alula Health Technologies subsidiary of the group. The ROX hypothesis is that the intersection of health and technology are key in assessing and managing risks, but also delivering improved quality of life at a lower cost to a broader audience. We are excited about the ROX partnership and acquisition as it will accelerate our plans to execute on an international expansion strategy. The HealthCloud platform connects to a broad ecosystem of data to provide a unified view of a consumer’s health profile. Through a seamless data exchange, it enables the creation of a Health Risk Score for insurers to better understand and manage new applicant and existing policyholder risks,” says Simon Spurr, Managing Director of Alula Health Technologies.

The HealthCloud platform integrates insurer data with electronic health records, medication usage, pathology results, remote diagnostic devices, wearables and facial scanning (rPPG), to provide a full overview of a policyholder’s health profile. Fully consented data sharing provides greater accuracy for insurers as they manage their portfolio and risk profiles, as well as offering revenue streams to data suppliers. With multiple insurers, both health and life, using HealthCloud, the system has generated more than two million unique health risk scores.

“The past five years have seen HealthCloud and SilverBridge working very successfully together in South Africa. The HealthCloud platform sits behind healthcare and insurance systems as an integrator to provide an intelligent transactional data layer. Through this partnership, the claims and underwriting processes instantly harness all first- and third-party data. This includes health data, identification verification, industry-risk screening with proprietary algorithms powering unique and valuable insights into the consumer’s health status. We have integrated this into SilverBridge to provide their solutions with a more effective way of viewing the health risk profile of a consumer and, with secure API-based technology, HealthCloud can integrate into the systems of insurers directly to enhance their operational capabilities,” adds Spurr.

The Smart Underwriting solution was recently launched in the UK with Alula Technologies and has generated a lot of interest from insurers, reinsurers and data providers. The joint solution reduces underwriting decision time from two to eight weeks to a matter of minutes. Furthermore, the cost of standard underwriting decisions is reduced by up to 95%. To date, the increased accuracy delivered through the solution has saved clients more than £2.5 million through the detection of non-disclosure.

The acquisition of the HealthCloud technology platform was completed in the middle of December last year and positions Alula to internationalise the platform by targeting emerging and developed markets. In addition to growing and internationalising the HealthCloud platform, Alula will look to acquire other relevant companies and technologies to enable it to provide more value to clients in the health and insurance sectors.

“There are still many growth opportunities in Africa, and we are actively exploring other regions. We commenced operations in the UAE in 2022 and there are other territories where we see strong expansion potential. These include high growth markets such as Asia and South America. Together with SilverBridge, we are building dynamic, new-generation digital products that are highly scalable for the global market,” says Spurr.