its up-and-coming startups and small businesses to make the leap from a handful or a few dozen employees to hundreds or thousands of people. A few acquisitions or initial public stock offerings by local startups would also help boost the ecosystem and raise Madison’s profile on the national stage.
Shrago and Gay, for their parts, believe that Madison’s healthtech scene will look a lot different in 10 years—in a good way.
“I think that when we look back in five years or 10 years, there will be a lot of people who say, ‘Gee, who knew that Madison would become this kind of powerhouse in this space?’” Shrago says.
Before we dive into the full list of companies, here are three takeaways from the data:
1. Diverse company mix: We defined healthtech broadly, basically including any companies that use software to affect healthcare, whether it’s hospitals’ administrative operations, the practice of taking care of patients, or even educating medical professionals. We included hardware companies, as long as the physical product integrates with software. We also included a few services companies because the rise of consulting businesses that help Epic customers implement its software has played an integral part in growing the overall ecosystem. Finally, we included healthtech companies that have their headquarters based outside of Madison, but have a local office. (Again, the list may not be comprehensive.)
We found 29 software-only companies, 10 that have a hardware component, three software consulting companies, and one that does consulting and builds its own software. At least 15 of the companies are focused either entirely on electronic health records, or interact frequently with such records as part of their businesses—which seems to be more evidence of Epic’s impact.
Local companies’ software products include Healthfinch’s programs that aim to streamline routine hospital tasks like completing prescription refill requests; HealthMyne’s data analytics software and search engine that can comb hospitals’ vast stores of electronic health records and medical images; and Forward Health Group’s Web-based software that gathers data on large groups of patients from disparate sources and presents it in more easily digestible formats.
Local hardware examples range from Propeller Health’s data-tracking devices that snap on to medication inhalers, to Kiio’s sensors that are used for measuring physical therapy progress.
2. Location clusters: The companies’ offices are mostly located where one would expect. The heaviest concentration is around the Capitol Square, which is becoming a hub for software startups. There are also a few companies sprinkled near the UW-Madison campus and in the University Research Park. One cluster of companies that is perhaps surprising is the group located west of the U.S. 12 beltline, near where Madison borders Middleton.
3. Mostly small companies: The most common employee count range was 20 to 49, with 12 companies of that size. That was encouraging to Gay, who views those companies as survivors of the startup stage and on the cusp of rapid growth. “It doesn’t matter what industry sector we’re talking about, those are the companies you build on,” he says.
The second-most common bracket was companies with five to nine employees. There are 10 companies in that category.
The list only includes four companies with more than 100 local employees.
Here is the full list of companies. The data sources include ReferenceUSA, CB Insights, SEC filings, company websites, and other research conducted by Xconomy and MadREP. Some of the employee counts from ReferenceUSA could be as much as two years old, MadREP says, so the numbers might not be up to date. (Click here to see a map of all the companies.)
| Name | Local employees | HQ in region? | Venture capital raised to date | Main focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AltusCampus | 14 | Yes | > $870K | Software |
| BluDiagnostics | 3 | Yes | None | Hardware |
| BlueTree Network | 20 to 49 | Yes | > $240K | Software consulting |
| Branch2 | 20 to 49 | Yes | $440K | Software |
| Castlight Health | 5 to 9 | No | > $178M. IPO in 2014. | Software |
| Catalyze | 10 to 19 | Yes | > $6M | Software |
| CenterX | 20 | Yes | None | Software |
| Clemetric | 20 to 49 | Yes | None | Software |
| DNASTAR | 40 | Yes | None | Software |
| Dock Technologies | 6 | Yes | $250K | Hardware |
| Epic Systems | 5,000 to 9,999 | Yes | None | Software |
| Forte Research Systems | 50 to 99 | Yes | None. Primus Capital acquired undisclosed stake this year. | Software |
| Forward Health Group | 10 to 19 | Yes | $7.3M | Software |
| GE Healthcare | 500 to 999 | No | Publicly traded | Hardware |
| Healthfinch | 20 to 49 | Yes | $2.8M | Software |
| Healthgrades | 250 to 499 | No | IPO in 1997. Acquired by Vestar in 2010. | Software |
| HealthMyne | 20 to 49 | Yes | $5.25M | Software |
| Health eFilings | Declined to disclose | Yes | $934,500 | Software |
| HighFive Health | Declined to disclose | Yes | Declined to disclose | Software |
| Influence Health | 20 to 49 | No | $6M. Acquired by Silver Lake Sumeru and Essex Woodlands in 2012. | Software |
| Kiio | 14 | Yes | $3.6M | Hardware |
| Kurbi Health | 4 | Yes | None | Software |
| Medical Cyberworlds | 5 to 9 | Yes | None | Software |
| Moxe Health | 5 to 9 | Yes | $100K | Software |
| Natus Neurology | Did not respond | No | Publicly traded | Hardware |
| NavGate Technologies | 20 to 49 | Yes | None | Software |
| Nordic Consulting Partners | 50 to 99 | Yes | $38.3M | Software consulting |
| Pharmacy OneSource | About 75 | No | None. Acquired by Wolters Kluwer Health in 2010. | Software |
| Philips Healthcare | 50 to 99 | No | Publicly traded | Hardware |
| Propeller Health | 20 to 49 | Yes | $23M | Hardware |
| Redox | 5 to 9 | Yes | $400K | Software |
| RevolutionEHR | 5 to 9 | Yes | > $1.4M. RevOptix acquired majority stake in 2014. | Software |
| Sensori | 5 to 9 | Yes | None | Hardware |
| Singlewire Software | 20 to 49 | Yes | None | Software |
| Swallow Solutions | 6 | Yes | $4.2M | Hardware |
| Symphony Corp. | 85 | Yes | None | Software and consulting |
| Updown Technologies | 5 to 9 | Yes | None | Software |
| Vistrata | 1 to 4 | Yes | None | Software |
| Vonlay | > 150 | No | None. Acquired by Huron Consulting Group in 2014. | Software consulting |
| Wellbe | 10 to 19 | Yes | $4M | Software |
| Wellsys | 5 to 9 | Yes | None | Software |
| Wicab | 11 | Yes | $14.4M | Hardware |
| WITS(MD) | Declined to disclose | Yes | $1.6M | Software |
