Keriton’s technology now stands to reach far more newborns in intensive care.
The Philadelphia healthtech company, focused on improving feeding safety in neonatal intensive care units (NICU), has been acquired by Natus Sensory, a global provider of pediatric and neonatal medical technology. Terms were not disclosed.
The deal positions Keriton’s feeding management platform for wider adoption across hospitals worldwide.
“They’ve got a very strong global presence in pediatric and neonatal critical care settings,” Keriton CEO Adam Dakin told Technical.ly. “So this will certainly create access and drive adoption of our platform.”
Keriton’s software uses barcode scanning and automated calculations to replace manual tracking and reduce feeding errors, a long-standing patient safety concern in NICUs.
The company will maintain its existing team and operations while gaining access to Natus’s commercial infrastructure.
“The good news is they’re going to continue to allow us to operate independently,” Dakin said.
Keriton’s technology is already in use or under contract with over 60 hospitals and health systems nationwide, including Jefferson Health in Philadelphia, New York Presbyterian and the Intermountain Healthcare system, which had a successful 32-hospital deployment last year.
“It was a big logistical challenge for a small company,” Dakin said, “but it went extremely well because of the investment we made in our operations, our platform and the scalability of our training and support.”
As the company enters its next phase, Dakin, who joined Keriton about a year and a half ago, emphasized that the platform’s growth is ultimately the result of sustained effort by Keriton’s staff, who support clinicians in round-the-clock critical care environments, as well as long-time investors Dreamit Ventures, Ben Franklin Technology Partners and BioAdvance Capital.
“What we do is hard,” Dakin said. “This is not a nine-to-five — this is a 24/7 job, because we’re supporting critical care.”
