San Francisco’s Syapse expands Philly-area office in play for tech talent

For Syapse, a San Francisco–based health IT company, the initial draw to the Philly area began in 2014 when Safeguard Scientifics led its $10 million Series B.

At the time, the company set up its first presence with a small outpost at Safeguard’s offices in Radnor. The access to local talent, coupled with the lower operating cost than other cities in the East Coast, made the precision medicine company double down on its Philly-area HQ: In February, it expanded its Radnor office to a 4,800-square-foot location inside the Five Radnor Corporate Center.

Now at 15 Philly employees, Syapse will look to double that number during 2018. Overall, it employs 130.

“We chose this location because of the opportunity to reach its tech workforce,” said Syapse’s Michael Italia, the product development director who also leads the Philadelphia office.

(Mayor Jim Kenney said this geographical advantage, aka the “goldilocks zone” was part of the pitch for Amazon’s HQ2 bid process.)

“We’ve had really great success recruiting talented people here,” said Italia, a Penn State and University of Pennsylvania grad who grew up in Reading, Pa. “It was because of our past success that we we’re able to expand. The region has people that we need to execute on that growth.”

It helps, of course, that there are dozens of health systems and providers, similar to the ones the company already serves, within a couple hours’ drive. Currently, the company has deployed its software platform in some 300 hospitals in 25 states.