Appature, a Seattle healthcare marketing startup co-founded by CEO Kabir Shahani, was sold to IMS Health.

Shahani, who graduated from the iSchool Informatics program in 2004 and is member of the Informatics Advisory Board, joined a startup called Blue Dot following a stint at Avanade after graduating.

Blue Dot failed and as he reflected in Geekwire's interview, "the frustration of the first (startup) was not having a seat at the table that we wanted. And we felt like the only way that we could have it, was to start it ourselves. I like to think that we built a culture and an environment here that — you don’t have to be a founder to have a seat at the table. I think that has made a huge impact on our success. The experience we had at a startup that we were hired into taught us that we didn’t want to operate that way — so that was in our DNA from day one."

Shahani and Chris Hahn founded Appature in 2007 with a vision of delivering bleeding edge software that provides tremendous business value while still being easy and fun to use. Their flagship product is an enterprise marketing suite that provides companies the tools to focus on their target customers, make more informed business decisions, and drive overall revenue while saving money on marketing campaign execution. Appature works with top brands in the healthcare vertical, and achieved profitability its first year. In recognition of the company's success, Shahani was named one of BusinessWeek’s "Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs of 2009."

Geekwire reports that IMS Health will immediately inject more funding into Appature to help the company expand its client base domestically and internationally and it will continue to operate as a standalone business under the umbrella of IMS. Shahani will remain CEO.