Exostar, an innovative information technology company offering cloud-based solutions that enable secure, cost-effective business-to-business collaboration, announced a $5.0 million investment to enable them to accelerate the growth and expansion of their healthcare and life science business.

Exostar’s cloud-based authentication identity hub for the healthcare industry, Secure Access Manager (SAM), connects customers with other organisations securely across large communities of users. The investment, made by the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, will help Exostar maintain its rapid growth in these markets and expand into related verticals.    

The healthcare industry continues to become more reliant on secure connections, not only to ensure organisations meet all compliance issues, but to support critical digital health applications such as ePrescribing, Health Information Exchange (HIE), and clinical collaboration.  Exostar leverages over a decade of experience helping companies access, utilise and share business-critical information and applications through an easy-to-use, secure Software as a Service (SaaS) model.

“Exostar has successfully expanded from its Aerospace & Defense heritage into other vertical markets that have similar requirements for secure collaboration, complex supply chain needs or identity management to support their core business processes,” said Richard Addi, Exostar’s chief executive officer.   “Our solution is an ideal fit for the healthcare and life science community that needs to set up connections with partners and their applications quickly and securely.  Exostar helps its customers connect with thousands of partners in their ecosystem without compromising network security or intellectual property.”

Originally established by some of the largest companies in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry, the Exostar life sciences identity hub today includes more than 600 life science focussed companies, government agencies and universities supporting the collaboration initiatives of thousands of individuals.

“Exostar’s secure cloud-based access and existing user base delivers a strong complement to the current and future needs of the data-driven healthcare industry,” said Joe Volpe of Merck’s Global Health Innovation Fund.