All Access

Health Tech Deals

Health Tech Deals Alerts

Alert

Standard

Health Tech Deals Thought Bubble

Thought Bubble

mustard

BFD Expert Voices - Health Tech Deals

BFD Expert Voices

topics

politics-policy

epstein-files

donald-trump

2026-midterm-elections

immigration

behind-the-curtain

race-and-equity

technology

privacy-tech-regulation

automation-and-ai

tiktok-news

big-tech

social-media

cybersecurity

economy

social-security

inflation

tariffs

federal-reserve

jobs

transportation

business

stock-market-news

retail-news

crypto

media

elon-musk

dealmaking

health

rfk-jr

drug-prices

axios-explains-abortion

public-health

world

israel

axios-explains-ukraine

iran

russia

china

energy-climate

nuclear-energy

climate-energy-policy

climate-change

extreme-weather

alternative-energy

electric-vehicles

science

emerging-tech

biomedicine

newsletters

pittsburgh

atlanta

san-diego

charlotte

boulder

washington-dc

kansas-city

dallas

denver

detroit

des-moines

austin

boston

chicago

cleveland

columbus

houston

indianapolis

miami

nashville

new-orleans

nw-arkansas

philadelphia

phoenix

portland

richmond

salt-lake-city

san-antonio

san-francisco

seattle

tampa-bay

twin-cities

raleigh

huntsville

colorado-springs

axios-local

axios-pro

axios-live

the-axios-show

Serial acquirer Datavant isn't done making deals, CEO Kyle Armbrester tells Axios Pro.

Why it matters: The industry is closely watching for the company's IPO.

What we're watching: While Armbrester wouldn't share an IPO timeline, he says the company — which supports data exchange between drugmakers, hospitals, clinics and insurers — is "doing a lot of things internally, so we're ready to go public when we decide to do it."

"We brought Jennifer Williams on [as CFO], who's got a ton of public experience as a CFO," Armbrester says.

Follow the money: Valued at $7 billion when it merged with Ciox in 2021, New Mountain-backed Datavant projects over $1.5 billion in revenue this year, Armbrester says.

Ardan Equity and Oxeon Partners are also investors.

Catch up quick: Datavant has made a string of acquisitions this year, many of them financed with debt, says Armbrester.

It paid about $400 million for Aetion in May and then bought Ontellus from Aquiline Capital Partners.

The company then made a deal for Digital Owl — which it announced last month — as it was closing the Ontellus deal, Armbrester says.

What they're saying: "I would expect to see more deals from us, either later this year ... or early next year as well," Armbrester says.

"The next area we're focused on is patient engagement, outreach, med adherence," he adds.

An industry consultant says several businesses could fit the bill, including Cota, which is currently on the market, and ConcertAI.

The intrigue: Datavant may face some bidder competition from large players like Veeva (NYSE: VEEV) and Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), which are both competing for a larger share of the pharma data market, the consultant says.

Stunning stat: Datavant is spending more than $40 million annually just on shoring up privacy, compliance and security, Armbrester says.

"Every RFP, every conversation with clients, we're seeing our prospective customers bring their privacy and compliance teams," he says.

State of play: As Datavant looks toward the public market, Zelis — a private equity-backed health payments behemoth last valued at $17 billion — is prepping for a 2026 listing, Axios has confirmed.

PE-backed EMR vendor Athenahealth is also being closely watched as a near-term IPO candidate, a second industry consultant says.

Datavant continuing deal deluge

The industry is closely watching for the PE-backed company's IPO.

Illustration of a handshake, repeated backward several times. 

Serial acquirer Datavant isn&#x27;t done <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="making deals" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/pro/health-tech-deals/2025/05/27/data-dealmaking-aetion-datavant" data-vars-content-id="3e2ba296-e65e-42df-8be8-dfa5bf8b4d65" data-vars-headline="Datavant continuing deal deluge" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/pro/health-tech-deals/2025/05/27/data-dealmaking-aetion-datavant" target="_self">making deals</a>, CEO Kyle Armbrester tells Axios Pro.Why it matters: The industry is closely watching for the company&#x27;s IPO.

Datavant continuing deal deluge

What to read next