Castlight Acquires Jiff in First Wellness Deal of 2017

Castlight Health Inc. on Jan. 4 announced its acquisition of Jiff Inc. in an all-stock transaction— yet another sign of the growing trend of consolidation in the corporate wellness industry.

The transaction is expected to close by the first half of 2017, and MobiHealthNews estimates the deal is worth $135 million. Current Castlight CEO and president John Doyle will be the CEO of the combined company. Jiff’s current CEO, Derek Newell, will be the president.

Although both are health benefits platforms, the two have different focuses. Publicly traded Castlight is largely a health care transparency company, which compares prices from different companies for similar services and provides recommendations for the customer. Jiff is a central hub for well-being and benefits programs and has a large ecosystem of health partnerships, according to StreetInsider.com, which also stated that “the combined platform will seek to improve every aspect of an employee’s health experience: from staying healthy, to accessing care, to managing a condition.”

It’s clear that the wellness market is consolidating in interesting ways and from different directions, according to Henry Albrecht, CEO of Limeade.

“We’ve seen acquisitions from health plans like United Health Group-Optum with Rally; private equity firms like Insight Partners taking on Virgin Pulse and now health care transparency companies like Castlight Health nabbing Jiff. Right now, the corporate wellness technology market is heavy on stand-alone, transactional benefits solutions, and light on seamlessly connected, year-round well-being experiences that employees love and want to use,” he wrote in an email statement.

Through this acquisition, the companies involved hope to offer the most comprehensive health benefits platform in the industry, according to a Castlight Health press release. Accomplishing this is important because, no matter how much health care has changed and will change, employers continue to provide health care benefits, said Dr. Giovanni Colella, co-founder and current chief executive officer of Castlight Health, in a statement online.

“Moreover, [employers] care deeply that their employees engage in their benefits so that the returns on this huge investment are felt by all,” he said. “This is a tremendous challenge, and we believe the combination of Castlight and Jiff is uniquely positioned to solve it.”

[Related article: Acquisition Frenzy Afoot in Corporate Wellness]

Web: Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.