What do Indiana tech pioneers Zylo, Wunderkind, Market Wagon, Socio and Salesforce Marketing Cloud have in common? 

Two invented their subsector and have seen competitors rise around them. Two refined existing services in the face of huge societal change. One was acquired by a global company. Two came for the state’s talent pool and stayed to refine their offerings. Three were born in Indiana.  Some made the 2023 Inc. 5000 fastest growing U.S. companies list. Each have grown dramatically since their founding. 

Oh. And, they’re all former Scale-up of the Year Mira Award winners. 

That category is renamed “Tech Company of the Year,” for the 2024 Mira Awards. 2024 nominees are high-growth, innovation-driven companies older than five years that have attained a pinnacle achievement within Indiana’s tech community.  

These path-cutting pioneers are both work horses and show horses that demonstrate extraordinary leadership and performance and can rightly claim bragging rights for putting technology to work in new and impactful ways. The summaries below of each company’s performance just skims the surface of what led to their nominations but will give you a glimpse into why their entries were elevated to nomination status.  

Only one can be named the 2024 Tech Company of the Year. The nominees are:    

The nominees are:  

Aunalytics: Co-Founders Tracy Graham and Nitesh Chawla, President Rich Carlton: 

Born at the University of Notre Dame, Aunalytics remains based in South Bend and is among the first in Indiana to see how important Artificial Intelligence (AI) would be to the future of legacy industries like banking, healthcare and manufacturing. The company helps clients understand and use constantly advancing digital tools. Aunalytics was among the first tenants of Ignition Park, where the team built a world class, $20+ million data center and “Aunsight,” its proprietary data platform designed for ingesting data from its source, creating new data models, running advanced algorithms, performing machine learning and delivering data in a timely and accurate manner to improve business outcomes. 

Authenticx: Founder and CEO Amy Brown: Based in Indianapolis, Authenticx is trusted by top healthcare and life sciences enterprises to help them identify, understand and effectively respond to customer sentiment and trends. One of the first to leverage AI to tap into the rich data pool of consumer feedback, the company has been recognized as one of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies and, according to Tech Crunch, was the only female-founded and led Midwest company to announce a Series B investment round in 2023. Its more than 15 proprietary healthcare-specific AI models are constantly being improved and checked by human experts to ensure accuracy. 

Baker Hill, President and CEO John Deignan: Community financial institutions reinvest local dollars back into the community, supporting new job creation and a healthy local economy, often by providing loans and financing. When their customers, members and communities flourish, these institutions thrive. Carmel-based Baker Hill’s latest, trailblazing solution, Baker Hill NextGen® Accelerate, enables banks and credit unions of all sizes to drive economic development and foster strong relationships with the businesses in their communities. It also enables these organizations to provide funding and lending to the community in a more efficient and profitable manner, realizing improvements of about 60 percent in their lending workflow. 

Republic Airways: President & CEO Bryan Bedford: In addition to being an airline, Republic Airways is a tech innovator, home to three “Top 25 in Tech” award winners and the 2019 Indianapolis Business Journal’s CTO of the Year. Connectivity, the rise of the Internet of Things and the proliferation of portable devices have changed every aspect of Republic’s business. It responded by revamping every aspect of its operations from recruitment and training of its next generation of aviators, to scheduling and communicating with its flight crews, to sharing critical information with team members around the world. It has also invested deeply in a tech-heavy headquarters and training center in Carmel. 

Award winners will be announced at the 25th annual TechPoint Mira Awards gala Friday, April 26, 2024, at the Old National Centre in Indianapolis. The event is presented by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Salesforce and a host of the state’s most innovative companies, universities and organizations.   See that growing list, learn more and get your tickets here.