Cadavers—there’s an app for that.
TrackVia, a venture-backed startup in Denver, has released its annual list of “the 10 Most Interesting Business Apps” built using TrackVia’s “do-it-yourself” development platform for business applications.
At the top of the list is an app designed by the Illinois-based Innoved Institute that tracks where body parts from cadavers go. The institute is in the medical education services field, and its services include “customized human tissue acquisition and disposition,” according to its website.
Among the other apps from TrackVia clients are an app that tracks patient progress throughout the course of stem cell treatments, developed by Cell Surgical Network, and an app that tracks roadside assistance calls for a company named Zippyunlocks.
While the list is a bit of fun intended to promote the company, it’s a cross-section of the kinds of companies using the product, vice president of marketing Charles Var said.
“We run into all kinds of interesting apps, and the ones on the list probably just represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of the custom applications we run across all the time,” Var said.
The apps that TrackVia clients develop using its software typically are Web-based applications that can be extended to mobile devices if a client wishes, Var said. Clients use them to track inventory, monitor workflow, or handle sales contacts—“These are full-blown business applications,” he said.
That do-it-yourself approach is key to TrackVia’s business model.
“We are trying to do for business software what WordPress did for websites and blogs. We’re trying to empower non-technical business people to build their own applications to track their own work,” Var said.
TrackVia was formed in 2006 and raised a $7.1 million Series B equity round in 2012, led by Longworth Venture Partners and Fairhaven Capital. Westminster, CO-based Access Venture Partners also is an investor.
Var said the company has raised about $10 million total and currently has about 50 employees. TrackVia says that more than 2,500 businesses in 15 countries have used its platform to develop their own apps.
