On May 28, a strategic merger was announced between Durham’s DaVinci Education and Canada-based Elentra. The two healthcare edtech pioneers are poised to combine forces within the portfolio of Achieve Partners, a New York private equity firm with a primary focus on supporting technologies related to learning.
We last profiled DaVinci Co-Founder and CEO Allison Wood in January of 2019—when, in fact, her company had yet to take up the name of history’s ultimate Renaissance Man.
Back then, Wood’s startup was called LCMS Plus. The company had spun out of Duke University with a software platform (LCMS+) designed to help universities comprehensively manage their health science school programs. It had amassed a large base of university clients and earned Wood CEO/Founder of the Year honors at American Underground.
But a lot’s happened since then.
Becoming DaVinci
Soon after our 2019 feature, LCMS Plus underwent a shakeup when Co-Founder David Wiener departed. Wood, however, pushed forward as the startup’s sole leader. In April of that same year, she rebranded LCMS Plus as DaVinci Education, invoking the legendary Italian inventor-slash-artist’s ability to see the big picture.
“Da Vinci is known as someone who kind of understood the 360 of how the world works,” Wood says. “Arts and sciences, humanities, engineering… and so because we had a product that was very comprehensive and connected all the different elements of medical education, we felt like that was a brand name that would really resonate.”
That comprehensive product evolved into a platform called Leo. Designed to help universities run healthcare educational programs from a single hub, Leo puts curriculum management, assessments and evaluations, faculty effort tracking, and more all in one place. It serves as an information center, an interactive portal, and a source of actionable insights for students, faculty, and administrators alike.
Engineering these changes in the wake of Wiener’s departure—and through the pandemic—Wood ultimately drove the startup to a banner year in 2022. Still, she continued to keep an eye out for growth opportunities that could help expand DaVinci’s positive impact on healthcare education technology.
“I’ve done this for 12 years now,” she says, “and the idea has always been to keep growing…. And when you’re in a specialized market and you have a specialized solution, the way you grow is to partner with other people who are doing similar things.”
As the recent merger news makes clear, Wood believes she’s found just such a partner in Ottawa-based Elentra.
The Merger And The Path Forward
DaVinci’s merger with Elentra (which Allison has posted about on LinkedIn) is a result of natural compatibility. Elentra had already become part of Achieve Partners’ portfolio when the three entities began discussing the idea of joining forces.
“It became evident that there could be some real synergies with us coming together, especially because we offer similar solutions and we speak to the same audience,” Wood said.
Indeed, Elentra’s platform is not unlike DaVinci’s Leo. The company bills itself as a leader in health sciences education, with a focus on managing curriculums, assessing and confirming competencies, and ensuring and reporting on compliance.
While the two companies are similar enough to be logical partners, they’re also different enough for a merger to be mutually beneficial.
“There are some differences between our platforms,” Wood says. But by connecting those platforms, she states that they’re “looking to build a best-in-breed solution down the road.”
As for becoming part of the Achieve Partners portfolio alongside Elentra, Wood was drawn to the firm’s commitment to the business of education.
“One of the things that drove me to partner with them is that they have a commitment [to] education in the workforce,” she said. “Because we’re a smaller company, we’re specialized in a particular niche that’s hugely important: the intersection of healthcare, education, and technology. But not everybody gets that; not everybody has the stomach for business in education. So [Achieve Partners’] credibility and… how long they’ve been in the space really mattered to me. And when I saw that they had joined up with Elentra, I was like, ‘OK, these guys get it.’”
While some of the specifics concerning structure (and name) are still being worked out, Wood will be a co-founder of the new company. She’ll be taking the whole DaVinci team along for the ride (most of them working remotely across North Carolina), and envisions her role as that of a client-facing communicator who can “bring forward the profile of the company.”
Wood believes the combined entity is “uniquely qualified to transform healthcare education.” She envisions the unified platforms and resources of DaVinci and Elentra providing universities with a comprehensive overview of their healthcare education processes—complete with actionable insights.
“I’m excited for DaVinci to realize the potential that I’ve always believed it had,” Wood says, reflecting on the journey to this point. Though it’s clear she won’t be forgetting her roots, either.
“I started this business [in Durham]. From the very beginning I leveraged resources like CED, like AU (American Underground)… And the best piece of advice I could give anybody is, ‘Raise your hand and open your mouth. Don’t miss the opportunity for connection and resources that’s right in front of you here in the Triangle.’”
That approach certainly seems to have worked out well for Wood and DaVinci.
