Merrill Lynch Ventures, the private equity unit of Merrill Lynch, has led the $18m (€20.3m) third-round investment in Sentillion, a US based software development company.

The two other new investors in this round were Dresdner Kleinwort Capital, the private equity arm of Dresdner Bank, and Universal Health Services, the US hospital management company. All of the companies who had participated in previous fundraising rounds again contributed. These included First Consulting Group, the healthcare managment services company Intersouth Partners, the North Carolina based early stage investor Newbury Ventures, the technology venture capital firm Polaris Venture Partners, the US medical technology and IT venture capital investment company and St Paul Venture Capital, the venture capital arm of St Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. Sentillion will use the funding to market its healthcare management software more widely.