Outcome Health is committing to add 2,000 jobs in Chicago by 2022.
That is the headline takeaway from a press conference organized by the healthtech company at the site of its new headquarters, which also hosted Mayor Rahm Emanuel this morning.
Located on 515 North State Street, three blocks north of Outcome Health’s current River North headquarters, the new offices will have space for up to 2,400 employees. In addition to housing the company’s own employees, the newly minted “Outcome Tower” will also have room available for rent by other startups.
"In order to reach our long-term goals, we need to invest in and build the great entrepreneurial ecosystem that's being built in the city of Chicago," said co-founder and CEO Rishi Shah. "That's why we're building an entrepreneurship campus in this building with us — a space where we can nurture innovation and growth among the next generation of companies in our ecosystem."
Shah said his hope is to create the kind of space he wishes his company had four years ago, when it only had 35 employees.
Outcome Health rented out space in its previous headquarters as well. Notable tenants include the MATTER healthtech incubator and SwipeSense, a fellow healthtech startup that uses IoT technology to promote hand hygiene in clinical settings.
With its new space, Outcome hopes to add to the Chicago tech ecosystem’s growing momentum as a hub for healthtech innovation. According to a study by the Health Care Council of Chicago, the city is home to 142 healthtech startup founded since 2010. The report also found that health companies raised more than $759 million in funding between 2011 and 2016.
Steven Collens, CEO of MATTER, said a confluence of factors set Chicago up for success in the fast-growing vertical.
“Chicago has the nation’s most expansive collection of established healthcare companies, institutions and associations, and an ecosystem that offers access to capital, an educated workforce and public-private innovation hubs to foster the growth of new ventures,” said Collens in a statement.
Mayor Emanuel said tech leaders outside of Chicago are also starting to take notice of what's going on in the city.
"This morning, I had a meeting with a major healthcare private equity firm that was talking about relocating some of the companies they invested in here to Chicago," he said.
A longtime pillar of the Chicago tech ecosystem, Outcome Health was founded by Rishi Shah and Shradha Agarwal in 2006 while the pair were students at Northwestern University. Then known as ContextMedia, the startup sought to provide actionable health insights to patients while they were at the doctor’s office.
The pair grew Outcome Health into one of the city’s biggest tech employers entirely without outside funding, expanding its team from 250 to more than 600 since 2015. The company surpassed $130 million in revenues last year, according to Crain’s. The company’s profit margin that year was close to 40 percent.
This May, the company announced that it had raised its first round of funding — $500 million, at a $5 billion valuation.
"Our aspiration is to take the half billion patient visits that we're impacting today around the country, and increase that number to be in 70 percent of U.S. [healthcare] facilities by 2020," said Agarwal. "To do that, we're going to need the most amazing talent from around the world ... joining us on this mission and on this journey."
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