Milwaukee software company Ideawake has raised another $1 million to expand its innovation-enabling platform into the health care field. The round was led by Madison's HealthX Ventures.
Ideawake's software is designed to help employers streamline the process of capturing and implementing frontline employees' ideas. It has more than 30 existing customers across industries but health care is its largest vertical, Ideawake CEO Coby Skonord said.
With the latest funding, Ideawake has raised a total of $2.4 million, Skonord said. The company previously raised funding from investors including Advocate Aurora Health, one of its customers. Its other customers include SiriusXM and Sanford Health of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The benefits of using Ideawake's platform go beyond capturing good ideas, Skonord said. The platform can also help boost employee engagement and build an internal culture of innovation, he said.
"(The new capital) is going to help us bring this employee empowerment throughout the rest of the health care industry much faster, at a time when clinician burnout is high and employee engagement is top of mind for most, if not all leaders in the healthcare industry,” Skonord said in a statement.
Ideawake's legal name is Inventalator Inc. The company was founded in 2013 and participated in gener8tor's equity accelerator program in 2017.
HealthX Ventures has also backed Wisconsin health tech companies including DotCom Therapy, EnsoData Inc., Redox Inc. and Veda Data.
"We see Ideawake as a natural fit for the HealthX portfolio given our mission to invest in companies that accelerate healthcare innovation," HealthX Ventures managing partner Mark Bakken said in a statement. "Employees at larger health systems have great ideas since they are the ones closest to the patient."
