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Philly tech hires: CHOP-backed Haystack, Comcast-backed Jornaya expand

These two firms are hiring.

Two Philadelphia data-analytics companies backed by locally-based investors say they are expanding and looking for new digital pros:

– Jornaya, the Comcast-backed "consumer journey insights platform" that targets sales leads for marketers, is moving to larger quarters at 1001 E. Hector St., Conshohocken, from 210 S. Maple St. in Ambler. The larger space will accommodate planned new hires, says CEO Ross Shanken.

The company now employs 73, including 15 hired in the past three months, and plans to grow at a similar pace. The company says its software-as-a-service platform "delivers actionable intelligence to identify high-intent propsects" for direct-dial marketers. Shanken says he plans to raise the company's profile with an Aug. 25 open house.

Jornaya raised $10 million from investors led by New Jersey-based Edison Ventures last year. Customers include AccuQuote, NextGen Leads, Consumer Solutions Group, Plymouth Rock Assurance and Penn Foster, and Ifficient, among others. In 2014, under its former name LeadID, Jornaya raised $7 million from Genacast Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners and Comcast Ventures. Genacast, based in Philadelphia, is a Comcast partner. Those companies remain Jornaya investors.

-Separately, Haystack Informatics, a Philadelphia-based healthcare-data analytics company backed by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, says it has raised more money — it won't say how much — from Philadelphia-based Rittenhouse Ventures, DreamIt Ventures, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Ben Franklin Technology Partners. DreamIt led an earlier funding round.

The cash infusion will enable Haystack to boost its headcount to around 15 data scientists and business people, from around 9 currently, Rittenhouse principal Jayson Tischler told me. The company's clients include CHOP and other hospital systems, and their technology consultants, who initially used Haystack "to monitor patient privacy," and have since added other applications, such as reviewing doctors' billing and records practices and target ways to make them more efficient.

Haystack's investors don't want to say how much they are pumping in because the field is growing rapidly and is "very competitive," Rittenhouse's Tischler added. Competitors include FairWarning, St. Petersburg, Fla., and Maryland-based Protenus Medical, whose backers also include DreamIt.

Founders Bimal Desai and Adrian Talapan "developed their original privacy solution to allow health systems to monitor employee behavior and meet privacy monitoring requirements," then "realized that their deep knowledge of employee behavior could be further applied to other challenges," Haystack said in a statement, adding that they built the system "with a team of data scientists that came out of Harvard University."

Desai added, "After ingesting billions of [Electronic Medical Records]data points, we've realized our extensive knowledge of behavior and interactions can be applied beyond privacy" to workflow and operational improvements, service-cost management, and patient-experience improvement.

(This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Protenus)