Dialogue, which offers a virtual technology platform for employees, has announced its acquisition of Argumed Consulting Group, a German-based Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) services company.
“This acquisition allows Dialogue to pursue its mission through a different lens.”
According to the Montreal healthtech startup, the acquisition marks “an evolution” in Dialogue’s product offering and opens up opportunities to expand within Europe. The price of the deal was not disclosed, however, Dialogue has acquired the full business operations of Argumed.
Dialogue is taking over the German company’s Munich and Freiburg headquarters and acquiring its 50 partnerships with competence centres across Germany. Competence centres are typically groups of researchers that help undertake market focussed research for the benefit of industries.
The acquisition represents a new line of business for Dialogue, which has typically worked with businesses to provide employees with health benefits in a new way. Argumed’s offerings will allow Dialogue to look at employee digital health from the lens of OHS, the multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at work, meant to protect workers from health and safety hazards.
“This acquisition allows Dialogue to pursue its mission through a different lens and roll out its technology platform to help millions of European employees avoid preventable workplace issues,” the company stated.
Dialogue has typically worked with businesses to offer employees resources that provide a variety of health benefits spanning mental health and wellness. Health professionals, including nurses, physicians, and other health practitioners, are accessible through Dialogue’s platform.
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Cherif Habib CEO of Dialogue added, “this acquisition enables us to combine Dialogue’s industry-leading telemedicine technology with Argumed’s OHS expertise to further help employers create healthy, safe, and productive workplaces for employees.”
Argumed provides workplace health and safety services to a diverse group of companies across Germany. It is built around the idea of digitizing services such as psychological and other risk assessments, instructions, training, and hazardous substances management. According to Argumed, applying technology to these areas can reduce existing regulatory complexity for employers.
As part of the acquisition Argumed will continue to operate and serve its existing customers. Dialogue plans to build new technology to support and improve the delivery of Argumed’s OHS services. Working together, the two companies plan to expand Argumed’s operations, customer-facing product, and technology teams in Germany and throughout Europe. Dialogue noted that this will likely result in dozens of highly skilled local jobs in Canada and Germany.
In mid-2019, Dialogue closed a $40 million funding round in order to fuel its Europe expansion. Later that year the company also launched its virtual mental healthcare program and more recently partnered with Doctor On Demand, a virtual care provider in the United States (US) to give enterprise clients the ability to offer virtual healthcare to employees visiting the US.
This acquisition marks Dialogue’s second since it was founded in 2016. In 2018, Dialogue acquired DXA, an AI-powered tool designed to replicate how an ER doctor’s brain thinks.
Image source Dialogue via Twitter