Ex-Cognizant chief D’Souza back into healthcare software, this time with a former rival
D’Souza was brought on earlier this year to run HealthEdge, a healthcare software firm based in Massachusetts. This is D’Souza’s second foray into expanding a firm specializing in machining. healthcare claims with which he was once at loggerheads.
In April this year, Bain Capital, which manages assets under management (AUM) worth $185 billion, announced that it had acquired HealthEdge for an undisclosed amount, which two sources claimed was more than $2 billion. A few months later, Recognize hired a new firm to manage the technical side of this deal. According to its website, Recognize is expected to create business process software and identify merger and acquisition opportunities.
Emails sent to Bain and Recognize seeking details remained unanswered by press time.
“Given the team’s vertical expertise in digital services, Recognize has been brought on as a preferred partner in the process to guide the business through the next phase of growth. As part of the value creation process, the deal team is focused on (i) building a free (sic) business processing as a service (BPaaS) offering; (ii) supporting existing management; (iii) identifying and executing attractive, synergistic merger and acquisition opportunities,” the Recognize website said.
Recognize is a New York-based venture capital firm founded by D’Souza in June 2019. The technology investment firm has raised $3 billion over many years and invests primarily in technology companies valued at less than $500 million. Recognize has already invested in around 15 companies during its six years of existence. Although most specialize With artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud engineering, HealthEdge is the only company in healthcare.
Nairobi-born D’Souza, who occupied the corner office of New Jersey-based Cognizant for a dozen years until 2019, played a key role in the acquisition of TriZetto, another health payments company. Cognizant acquired TriZetto in 2014 for $2.7 billion. This was a key cog in boosting the company’s healthcare revenue, which has more than doubled in 11 years. It reached $5.9 billion in 2024. During this time, the company’s total revenue more than doubled to $19.74 billion.
D’Souza is now fighting on behalf of a company he once opposed. TriZetto filed an infringement lawsuit against HealthEdge in 2015, when D’Souza was chief executive of Cognizant. In the lawsuit filed in Colorado district court on January 23, 2015, Trizetto accused HealthEdge of improperly using and advertising its trademarked technology.
“HealthEdge engaged in a multi-pronged advertising campaign that improperly used TriZetto’s trademarks without authorization and published numerous false and misleading statements, including those regarding TriZetto’s products and services,” TriZetto’s complaint states. it said. However, the case was resolved between the two parties in 2017.
And now D’souza has entered HealthEdge in a new avatar via Recognize.
Recognize, which he co-founded, joined Bain to help grow HealthEdge. Bain is the majority owner of the healthcare software firm that provides financial backing. Recognize brings technology and industry know-how to help HealthEdge improve its products, create new services and better compete with legacy systems used by health insurers.
“Recognize, through HealthEdge, is investing in the belief that continued headwinds will support the growth of next-generation payer claims software as we compete with underinvested legacy players in an end market shifting toward modernization,” Recognize said on its website. “As payers face increasing workflow and data complexity, the software they use for claims processing may become increasingly critical and central to their data and information flow ecosystems.”
One expert said two competing software programs, HealthEdge and Trizetto, will compete against each other in a $72 billion market.
“Francisco D’Souza has a background in healthcare and much of Cognizant’s growth has come from this segment. His experience in scaling this business, his connections and his ability to win business are what are attractive to these investment firms,” said Siddharth Pai, founder and managing partner of Siana Capital, a Bengaluru-based asset management firm. “Francisco’s entry actually puts HealthEdge in competition with Cognizant’s Trizetto.”
But the healthcare software applications segment is rife with regulatory hurdles. Cognizant is still in a legal dispute with Infosys Ltd over Trizetto.
In 2023, Cognizant said Infosys misused confidential and proprietary information while integrating TriZetto software into customer systems and even accused it of creating a competing healthcare product. Infosys, on the other hand, accused Cognizant of acting “anti-competitively” and dragged its CEO Ravi Kumar. Infosys alleged that Kumar, a former Infosys executive, deliberately delayed the launch of a rival software to benefit Cognizant.
HealthEdge’s new legal concerns now fall on Bain, which acquired primary ownership of the company from Blackstone. Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager with $1.1 trillion AUM, had been investing in the healthcare software company since 2020.
Bain strengthened its bet on HealthEdge by acquiring UST HealthProof in September 2025 and quickly integrating the business, expanding the platform’s payment-side technology coverage.
“The combination of HealthEdge and UST HealthProof creates a single, end-to-end platform that helps payers modernize their operations. By combining HealthEdge’s AI-powered payment applications with UST HealthProof’s interoperability suite, the platform streamlines administrative processes, lowers overall costs, and improves the member experience,” HealthEdge said in a Sept. 4 press release.
Siana Capital’s Pai thinks the healthcare industry is ready for more private equity investment. “There will always be demand for healthcare-focused services, and the amount of technological change occurring in healthcare due to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence is immense,” he said.
