Health IT firm Audacious Inquiry lands investment from ABS Capital

After 14 years, Audacious Inquiry is taking outside money for the first time.
The health IT company, which is based at bwtech@UMBC, said it received an investment from Baltimore-based, later-stage firm ABS Capital Partners. The amount wasn’t disclosed.
While the B Corporation has been able to make money internally to help it grow, it’s looking to enter a new phase. Audacious Inquiry plans to use the money to expand its offerings to more customers from its current 11 states, as well as improve its product offerings, according to a spokesperson.
“We look forward to our partnership with ABS Capital as we work to accelerate interoperability across the country to enable better communication, coordination, and care,” Chris Brandt, managing partner of Audacious Inquiry, said in a statement.
Founded in 2004, the 110-person company helped in the development of a system known as CRISP, or the Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients, which serves as a health information exchange in Maryland, D.C. and West Virginia. It then partnered with CRISP to develop a tool that provides notifications about patient movements, and other applications to coordinate care.
The company has also worked with the federal government, including working on interoperability standards.
Through a contract with California’s EMS authority, it also developed a tool called PULSE that could be used in disaster response to allow relief workers to find records for a person in any setting such as a shelter or ER.
With the investment deal, Cal Wheaton of ABS Capital Partners will join the company’s board. Wheaton said the firm was “impressed by the company’s ability to demonstrate strong growth and profitability while developing solutions that have the ability to reshape the healthcare landscape for the better.”