Jul. 29–TAMPA, Fla. — Outsourcing and health care are two of the decade’s boom industries, so iLiant Corp. of Tampa is trying to capitalize on both.
ILiant, which handles billing and back-office duties for physicians, recently scored $3 million in venture capital funding, the quarterly MoneyTree VC survey released Monday shows.
The other Tampa Bay companies to win venture funding in the past three months were:
–Solicore Inc. of Lakeland, a rechargeable battery manufacturer, won $249,000 from Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
–Gold Coast Restaurants of Tampa, which owns the Johnny Leverock’s Seafood House chain, won $250,000 from Jefferson Capital Partners and others.
All told, 14 companies in Florida won $45.7 million in venture capital funding in the quarter. Nationwide, such funding rose to about $4.3 billion, from $4 billion in the first quarter of 2003, according to the survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association.
Rick Salas, iLiant’s chief executive officer, said the Cypress Street company looks to grow quickly. Founded in 2000, the company stores physicians’ software on its computers, provides them with electronic medical records and handles their billing and collections.
In 2001, iLiant received $10 million in venture capital. That was followed by Monday’s announcement of the $3 million investment from Wakefield Group and Jefferson Capital Partners.
The company is using the money to expand into new markets and buy other companies, Salas said. So far, it has grown to 10 offices and 700 employees across the nation. Revenue is substantially more than $10 million a year, Salas said, although he would not give specific figures.
What’s more, about 25 percent of physician groups outsource their billing and collections, which means the company has plenty of room to grow, Salas said.
Marty Donsky, a marketing manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers, said health care companies such as iLiant are hot targets for venture capitalists. In fact, of the 14 companies that received such funding in the past three months, five were in health care.
“Because of the aging population, you typically see a lot of health care deals” in Florida, Donsky said.
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