SHYFT Management opted for an all strategic collaboration, which included investments from McKesson Ventures, Medidata Solutions ( NASDAQ : MDSO ) and other healthcare and technology industry leaders. SHYFT will use the investment to continue its rapid growth and expansion and further advance its leading healthcare cloud analytics platform. Existing investors, Health Enterprise Partners and Milestone Venture Partners, also participated in the round.

'This financing represents a major step forward in building SHYFT into one of the biggest and most important industry cloud companies for life sciences and we're excited to have the backing of such a diverse and strategic group of investors,' added Zackary King, CEO and co-founder of SHYFT. 'It is a unique and valuable opportunity to have partners who understand our customers and share our vision for advancing healthcare through analytics.'

McKesson Ventures is the venture capital arm of McKesson Corporation, a Fortune 5 global healthcare company. Medidata delivers cloud-based clinical development technology and analytics powering life science customers to make better, faster development decisions.

'Life Sciences companies are rapidly adopting analytics to increase their commercial efficiency and to improve the clinical effectiveness of their drugs,' said Dave Schulte, managing director of McKesson Ventures. 'SHYFT's cloud-based platform provides the necessary foundation for superior enterprise data management, integration and visualization. Their impressive growth and strong customer demand positions SHYFT as the market leader, particularly in the category of analyzing real world outcomes for pharmaceutical treatments.'

With the recent launch of SHYFT RWE, a first of its kind solution that aggregates EMR data and delivers real world treatment outcomes and analytics, SHYFT is now redefining and optimizing observational research at scale. In a single application, SHYFT customers can now conduct end-to-end patient and disease studies in days rather than months for research focused on drug safety, comparative effectiveness, drug utilization, treatment pathways and patient outcomes. Customers already include two of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies and a rapidly expanding customer base in Specialty, Rare Disease, and Biotechnology.

'With its focus on real-world evidence data, SHYFT's analytics platform provides insights that have the potential to change how life sciences companies develop and commercialize new drugs,' said Medidata's chief operating officer Mike Capone. 'We're excited to invest in SHYFT's future, as we share a common goal of delivering flexible, innovative technology solutions to our clients that will speed up clinical research and, ultimately, benefit patients.'

SHYFT's cloud platform enables customers with faster time to analytics, reduced operational cost and risk while increasing commercial and clinical performance. SHYFT customers develop treatments across broad and emerging therapeutic areas with a strong focus on oncology, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other specialty and rare disorders.

For more information on SHYFT visit http://shyftanalytics.com.

About SHYFT
SHYFT Analytics is the leader in cloud analytic solutions for global life sciences. The company delivers smarter, timelier access to novel insights in the cloud that provide new ways to look at the healthcare business to increase competitiveness, enhance customer engagement, grow revenue and improve patient health. Designed for the healthcare industry, SHYFT's Enterprise Cloud Analytics Platform is the fastest way to transform healthcare data into insights and achieve significant scale and agility. More information can be found at www.ShyftAnalytics.com.

About McKesson Ventures
McKesson Ventures is the venture capital arm of McKesson Corporation specializing in early and growth stage companies. McKesson Ventures targets companies that both catalyze and benefit from the key changes taking place in the U.S. health care landscape. McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 5th on the FORTUNE 500, is a health care services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of health care run better. We work with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that help deliver better care to patients in every setting. Visit www.mckessonventures.com to learn more.

Follow @MCK_Ventures on Twitter.

About Medidata Solutions
Medidata is reinventing global drug development by creating the industry's leading cloud-based solutions for clinical research. Through our advanced applications and intelligent data analytics, Medidata helps advance the scientific goals of life sciences customers worldwide, including more than 700 global pharmaceutical companies, innovative biotech, diagnostic and device firms, leading academic medical centers, and contract research organizations.

The Medidata Clinical Cloud (MCC) brings a new level of quality and efficiency to clinical trials that empower our customers to make more informed decisions earlier and faster. Our unparalleled clinical trial data assets provide deep insights that pave the way for future growth. The MCC® is the primary technology solution powering clinical trials for 17 of the world's top 25 global pharmaceutical companies, from study design and planning through execution, management and reporting.

About Health Enterprise Partners
Health Enterprise Partners (HEP) is a New York-based growth equity firm focused on health care services and information technology companies whose customers are typically hospital systems or health plans. Our reputation and integrity, coupled with a strategic investor base comprised of 16 leading hospital systems, 9 health plans and a pharmaceutical company represent invaluable assets to our portfolio companies.

About Milestone Venture Partners
Milestone Venture Partners is a venture capital fund with $135 million under management which invests in early stage, Digital Health businesses that solve healthcare problems. Milestone has backed 21 Digital Health companies, eight of which have achieved successful exits. Please visit www.milestonevp.com.