Baltimore may not be the first city that comes to mind when people think of technology, but there are still firms here making a national impact.
B.well Connected Health is one of those startups, and it was recently named one of 35 firms chosen for the 2024 American Inno Startups to Watch list. The Federal Hill company has created a platform that allows patients to keep all their medical records in one place and is primed for big growth this year after signing an agreement to put its software on every single Samsung device as part of the Samsung Health app. The deal will give the company access to thousands of new customers and is just the latest step for b.well, which already has millions of users through agreements with major health care providers like MedStar Health. The company will also partner with an identification verification platform next year so people can sign into the app through fingerprints or other biometric data.
CEO Kristen Valdes founded the company in 2015 after being inspired by her daughter’s struggle with chronic illness. Her daughter has to juggle over 20 different patient portals to visit all of her doctors, which makes it difficult to keep track of patient records or test results. Every different doctor or health care system has its own log-in portal, creating a fragmented system where patients have to learn countless different passcodes for all the hospitals they visit. B.well tries to make it easier for patients by giving them a way to access all of their health care care data in a single place.
American Inno is a startup and innovation-focused brand from American City Business Journals, the parent company of the Baltimore Business Journal. To find this year's startups to watch, American Inno looked at more than 40 ACBJ newsrooms to find companies that exemplify entrepreneurship. The resulting list ranges from startups researching the capabilities of artificial intelligence to firms that are trying to remake the controversial process of fracking. While the slowdown in venture capital across the country since the pandemic has forced many companies to downsize, these firms have still managed to thrive.
In addition to the American Inno selection, b.well was named a 2024 startup to watch by Maryland Inno and Valdes was named a 2023 Woman of Excellence by the BBJ.
Learn more about the 34 other startups that made the cut.
