Milwaukee-based
Ideawake has completed a $1 million funding round which will be used to help the company accelerate its market expansion into health care.
Ideawake provides an innovation platform combined with programs, services and expertise that support organizations’ innovation programs, from idea collection to measured results. Its objective is to provide companies with tools to turn employees into innovators. It does this in a number of ways, including idea management, which captures and tracks the return on investment of concepts in a company’s innovation pipeline. Advocate Aurora
previously invested $75,000 into the startup and Brightstar Wisconsin Foundation Inc. also invested $50,000.
Madison-based
HealthX Ventures, a health care-focused venture capital firm, invested an undisclosed amount to Ideawake during this latest round of funding.
“We see Ideawake as a natural fit for the HealthX portfolio given our mission to invest in companies that accelerate health care innovation. Employees at larger health systems have great ideas since they are the ones closest to the patient, which Ideawake can help,” said
Mark Bakken, managing partner at HealthX Ventures.
Instead of just capturing any idea, Ideawake’s technology allows employers to collect targeted feedback using time-based targeted challenges. Using challenges ensures that the ideas being collected, prioritized, and ultimately actioned are in line with the goals of the organization.
“We have already been able to engage hundreds of thousands of frontline workers in health care to help save money, improve care, and make frontline workers feel like their voices are being heard,” said
Coby Skonord, chief executive officer at Ideawake. “I’m excited for our partnership with HealthX because it 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 health care industry.”
