A fast-growing software company will expand to the Triangle after buying Raleigh startup

RALEIGH, NC, Jan. 19, 2022 /The News & Observer/ – CanvasGT, a Raleigh startup that makes software for medical device designers, has been bought by the Indianapolis company Greenlight Guru, the two companies said Wednesday.

The price of the acquisition, which will create a Greenlight Guru office in downtown Raleigh, was not disclosed.

Greenlight Guru works in the same space as CanvasGT, making a design platform that helps medical device manufacturers control the quality of their products. The company says its products help guide new medical device entrepreneurs through the sometimes byzantine process of submitting their designs and products to regulators.

Greenlight Guru CEO David DeRam said CanvasGT’s software will be a key addition for many entrepreneurs in the earliest stages of designing medical devices, as the startup’s platform makes it easier to collaborate during the initial design phases.

“For years, customers have asked us for our expertise when they are early in the R&D process,” DeRam said in a statement. “With CanvasGT, not only can we assist them earlier with expertise, but now we’ll be able to help implement true quality into their devices from the very beginning of the ideation process allowing them to iterate faster, design better, safer devices and influence medical device innovators’ view of design controls from burdensome to a best practices that gives them an advantage.”

Founded in 2020, CanvasGT only has a handful of employees. But the two companies said its presence in downtown Raleigh will grow in the near future under the Greenlight Guru name.

CanvasGT is led by Andrew DiMeo, a veteran of the Triangle’s startup scene. He previously helped found the Morrisville medical device and design company Gilero and was a biomedical engineering professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University.

DiMeo plans to continue with the company after the acquisition, and said Raleigh would likely benefit from the purchase because of the wealth of talent it has in the biomedical engineering field. All three of the Triangle’s largest universities — Duke, UNC and N.C. State — have biomedical engineering programs, and the local hospitals have proven to be fertile grounds for startups.

“I’m especially proud of the acquisition by Greenlight Guru because our shared vision of medical device success protects that strategic focus,” DiMeo said. “Working together ensures delivering the solution to the users so that more life-saving innovations can successfully get to market faster.”

Greenlight Guru, founded in 2013, has raised more than $120 million from investors in recent years. Its largest backer is the Maryland investment company JMI Equity, which led an $85 million investment round into the Durham startup ServiceTrade last year.

Greenlight told The News & Observer that it is committed to the Raleigh area going forward. The company, like many others during the pandemic, has adopted a distributed workforce approach to hiring. It currently employs around 150 people.

“Prior to the pandemic, Greenlight Guru was 100% located in Indianapolis,” Greenlight spokeswoman Naomi Gollmer said. “Since then, we’ve committed to having a distributed workforce with more than 40% of our team located outside the Indianapolis area. Going forward we plan on continuing to recruit and attract top talent regardless of location whether that be Indianapolis, Raleigh or elsewhere in the U.S.”