Symphony buys stake in Graphnet

Symphony Technology Group has purchased a 40% stake of shared record specialist Graphnet.

The news comes just a week after Symphony completed its acquisition of McKesson's UK clinical IT business, now re-named System C, and appointed Ian Denley and Markus Bolton as joint chief executives.

The new Symphony investment will provide a partial exit for Graphnet's founders and shared record pioneers, Dave Garnett and Tony Sharer, who have led the development of some of the most successful shared record and interoperability projects in the NHS.

The acquisition will see a substantially new management team brought in and be used to accelerate product development.

Denley and Bolton have previously invested in Graphnet through their Shearwater health IT accelerator vehicle.  Both are directors of and investors in the company.

Over the last year, Graphnet has won three major new shared care record projects, rewritten and deployed a new version of its CareCentric software and increased revenues by 30%.

Graphnet is a major supplier of shared care record software for the NHS and the social care sector and provider of EPR and integration software for acute care.

The new management team includes Brian Waters, who have been appointed chief executive. Waters was previously vice president at McKesson and held director positions at System C and CSC.

Andy Bratt will continue to be managing director, with overall responsibility for operations at the company.

They will be joined by Antony Smith, who has been appointed the company's finance director. Antony was previously finance director at Dr Foster Intelligence.

Bolton and Denley are retaining their 46% stake in Graphnet and active involvement as director and chairman respectively.

Announcing the changes, Graphnet's directors Dave Garnett and Tony Sharer revealed they would be moving to part-time roles. Garnett and Sharer founded the business 20 years ago with partner James Leeming.

"Graphnet's performance over the last 12 months has put us in a really strong position and the changes we are announcing today put all the right building blocks in place in terms of people and capital for the next phase in the company's development", said Garnett.

Tony Sharer added: "Dave and I have invested massive time and energy into this business and we are really pleased to be handing it over in such good condition.

“Graphnet has exciting times ahead and we are looking forward to supporting the business on a more advisory basis moving forward."

Brian Waters has been working for Graphnet on a consultancy basis since the autumn and is therefore already up to speed with the company and its markets and said that during that time things have moved at a “remarkable pace”

"National initiatives such as the Better Care Fund and the two technology funds have ensured that electronic patient and shared care records are now firmly established as a key tool in the delivery of patient-centric, joined-up care pathways,” he said.

"We are really looking forward to the challenges ahead."