Innovative Austin Companies at SxSW Interactive

This year’s SxSW Interactive featured a cornucopia of emerging technologies and pioneers. Several themes stood out to us, including telemedicine, patient experience, augmented/virtual reality, and chatbots. We identified up-and-coming companies based in Austin that operate in these high-growth sectors and had the opportunity to interview the founders both during and subsequent to Austin’s keynote tech event. This article highlights some insights gleaned from our conversations.

As the preeminent technology investment bank in the middle corridor of the U.S., Navidar keeps a close eye on trends and companies showcased at SxSW Interactive as well as those based in Austin. We have a proven track record of helping innovative technology companies like the ones described herein achieve elevated valuations during exits. Collectively, our team has completed more than 300 transactions, representing $70 billion in M&A, capital raises, and public offerings.

1. Chronic Health

– Telemedicine enables doctors to treat patients over video in a compliant manner.

– The global telemedicine market is expected to be worth more than $34 billion by the end of 2020¹.

– About 96%² of hospitals have implemented a certified EHR (electronic health record) system.

Medical practice management and EHR providers such as athenahealth and CaraCloud began opening their platforms to third-party technology vendors several years ago. Chiron Health’s CEO, Andrew O’Hara, and Co-founder, Charlie Kolb, seized this opportunity with an eye towards leveraging EHRs to bring telemedicine into physician groups across the United States. While the company also sells direct, it is increasingly focused on becoming the telemedicine provider of choice within the ecosystems of major EHRs.

The company’s SaaS solution enables physicians to see their patients over HIPAA-compliant video with full billing and reimbursement included. Powered by the Chiron Rules Engine, Chiron Health verifies patients’ insurance eligibility and guarantees full private-payer reimbursement for telemedicine visits. Instead of taking half a day off work for a 15-minute doctor visit, for example, Chiron Health enables patients to meet with their physicians remotely via smartphone or desktop video conference. As a result, patient satisfaction and outcomes improve as does the revenue and quality of care for physician groups.

Chiron Health has raised more than $5 million in capital from venture investors, including AXA Strategic Ventures out of NYC, and has grown to more than twenty employees.

2. NarrativeDX

– Patient-experience platforms help hospitals collect, process, and intelligently act on data.

– Studies show that hospitals with higher patient ratings have higher profit margins.³

– Investors poured $2.8B⁴ of investments into patient and consumer experience in 2016.

NarrativeDX is capitalizing on the move to consumer-driven healthcare and an increase in regulations that emphasize quality of care. Founded in 2013 by Senem Guney, who has a PhD in Organizational Communication, and Kyle Robertson, a serial entrepreneur, the company’s patient experience management SaaS platform provides hospitals with actionable insights for improving medical care.

Its solutions enable hospitals to enhance patient experiences and satisfaction as well as their reputations by applying machine-learning and natural-language-processing technology to patients’ comments. This data is sourced through surveys, social media, and other areas (such as call transcripts and doctor-review sites).

Through modern digital dashboards, hospital administrators can quickly pinpoint where facilities are either performing well or in need of improvement. Users can drill into key doctors, nurses, themes, and sentiments in multiple performance areas such as nurse communication.

By implementing NarrativeDX customers such as Christiana Care and Palisades Medical Center have successfully eliminated the guesswork involved in their various improvement initiatives.

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