Awarepoint raises $9 million for health RTLS

Real-time location systems provider for hospitals and healthcare gets refueled by previous investors

Awarepoint, a real-time location systems (RTLS) provider for hospitals, has raised $9 million in a combination of equity and debt. All existing Awarepoint investors returned to participate in the round.

Exactly nine months ago to the day, Awarepoint announced that it had raised a $10 million round led by Jafco Ventures with the help of previous investors Cardinal Partners and Venrock. The company has raised $28 million to date.

Persons involved in the most recent deal, according to an SEC Form D filing, are Awarepoint CFO Stephen Zaniboni, board member Edward Zander, chairman of the board Nico Nierenberg, Tom Mawhinney (general partner at Jafco Ventures), Brian Ascher of Venrock, Brandon Hull (general partner at Cardinal Partners), and one executive George Weinert, which might actually be a misprint of Brad Weinert, Awarepoint’s COO. (We've contacted the company, but no word yet.)

The only name noticeably missing is Jay Deady, who was just appointed President and CEO of the company this week. In the industry for 21 years, Deady last served as executive vice president of client solutions for Eclipsys, a healthcare information technology company that merged with healthcare community AllScripts in September.

Awarepoint uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) and RTLS technologies to track the status and location of high-value assets in hospitals. “High-value assets” can include anything from patients to equipment to medical devices to anything else that can be RFID tagged. The data collected from these measurements enable hospitals to streamline their workflows and processes.

The University of California San Francisco Medical Center and the Thornton Hospital at the UCSD Medical Center are considered two of the company’s best success stories. (Not coincidentally, Awarepoint is headquartered in San Diego.)

Established in 2002, Awarepoint’s creators see much broader applications for RFID and RTLS than just hospitals, but they focused specifically on that sector for business purposes. Don’t be surprised, though, if we see that lens widening in the near future to other sectors.

As a whole, it looks like RTLS is securing its place as a necessary market for hospitals, with Awarepoint competitor AeroScout having secured a month ago a $16 million fifth round from a slew of prominent venture capital firms. Like Awarepoint, AeroScout has raised $28 million to date.