Strive completes acquisition of Semler Scientific

Strive (NASDAQ: ASST) completed its acquisition of Semler Scientific on Friday, consolidating bitcoin holdings to become the 11th largest public corporate holder of the cryptocurrency globally.

The combined company now holds approximately 12,797.9 bitcoin in its treasury, putting it just behind CleanSpark as the 11th largest publicly traded corporate bitcoin holder, according to BitcoinTreasuires.Net. If we compare Strive to pure-play bitcoin treasury companies, and filter out bitcoin miners and crypto exchanges, Strive has the fourth largest bitcoin treasury of publicly traded bitcoin treasury companies. 

Stockholders of Semler Scientific received 21.05 shares of Strive for every share of Semler stock owned. Based on closing prices from January 15, the exchange ratio valued Semler shares at approximately $20.42. This figure represented a premium of roughly 0.34% over Semler’s closing price of $20.35 on that date. Strive shares closed at $0.97 on January 15.

The merger establishes a dual operational mandate for the Dallas-based firm. Strive will manage its bitcoin treasury while also tapping into Semler’s legacy healthcare business. The healthcare division focuses on products for early disease detection.

Strive appointed Avik Roy as Chief Strategy Officer to oversee the healthcare segment. Roy previously served as an independent board member for Strive and stepped down to assume the full-time executive role. His primary responsibility involves monetizing the Semler Scientific subsidiary and expanding its scope within the early disease detection market. Roy retains a position as a board observer.

Roy brings a background in both medicine and finance to the role. He trained as a physician at Yale Medical School after studying science at MIT. His career includes tenure at Bain Capital and J.P. Morgan, where he focused on biotechnology and healthcare companies. He also served as President and CEO of the National Institute for Health Care Management.

In addition to his healthcare experience, Roy holds a position as a Senior Fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute. He co-authored “The Satoshi Papers,” which explores the intersection of bitcoin and public policy.

The governance structure of Strive expanded with the addition of Eric Semler to the board of directors. Semler previously served as Executive Chairman of Semler Scientific. He joins Strive as an independent board member following the transaction.

Joe Burnett joined the Strive management team as Vice President of Bitcoin Strategy. Burnett previously held the title of Director of Bitcoin Strategy at Semler Scientific.

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