CARY – Steve Malik says selling his medical data platform company MedFusion for $43 million will help him apply more resources in pursuit of building the $2 billion Downtown South project.

Asked if the sale boosted the Downtown South effort, he told WRAL TechWire:

“Yes, having more liquidity gives me more flexibility and leverage for DTS.”

Malik and partners, including Raleigh developers John Kane and Billie Redmond, announced plans for the Downtown South project earlier this year. It would include a soccer stadium.

That project continues with reviewing, impact study and permitting processes.

Malik is North Carolina FC [Football Club] and North Carolina Courage owner.

The sale of Medfusion was announced early Wednesday. Malik founded the company, sold it to Intuit in 2010 and reacquired the firm in 2013.

The sale of Medfusion to California-based NextGen Healthcare, a technology services provider focused on ambulatory care, which is publicly traded, doesn’t mean the end of Malik’s involvement in healthcare.

As part of the Medfusion deal, Malik is spinning out a new venture called Greenlight Health data Services.

“I’m super excited about Greenlight Health and the opportunity to focus on providing explicit patient authorization for uses of their health data.,” Malik said.

“Patients can benefit in many ways from having a consolidated and updated health record across all their providers. As big data and the insights gained by AI of that data impact positive health outcomes, many constituents from life and health insurance companies to clinical trials firms stand to benefit from patients’ consent to use their data.”

Chris Barbeem chief financial officer of Medfusion, will be the “transition leader” for the deal, Malik noted.

As for why he sold Medfusion itself, Malik declined comment when asked for more details and if he had more than one offer for the company.

“As we are selling to a publicly traded company, I’m not offering any comments on the sale of Medfusion’s patient experience platform,” Malik said.