Three Fast-Growing Industries In Silicon Slopes
Utah has a burgeoning tech scene. For regular readers of this publication, I know I’m preaching to the choir. But as the rest of the country begins to notice the incredible innovation coming out of this region, we should also turn the lens inward and appreciate which industries are taking off and finding national success.
Last year, as total venture capital investments nationally were shrinking, Utah companies raised more than $1 billion in venture capital for the first time ever. Six Utah companies made Forbes’ Cloud 100 list, and reporter Alex Konrad even wrote a piece calling Silicon Slopes “cloud computing’s new capital.” CNBC named Utah America’s Top State for Business in 2016. And I’ve written previously about the top tech talent that fuels our growth.
Here are three of the top industries in our region responsible for retaining tech talent, attracting new funding and gaining recognition:
Financial Technology
Utah banks have a combined total of $580 billion in assets, and Goldman Sachs’ second largest North American office is located in Salt Lake City. So, it’s not surprising that fintech companies in the area have seen recent growth and success.
My company, Finicity, raised $42 million last December and recently announced deals with Experian, Intuit, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. San Francisco unicorn SoFi announced it will soon have back-office operations in Salt Lake City, taking advantage of Utah banking laws that allow non-bank companies to set up banking operations under an industrial bank charter. Crest Financial Services was named to Utah Business’ fastest growing companies list. MX pulled in a $30 million Series A round in 2015, and Lendio just announced it’s more than halfway to having facilitated $1 billion in small business loans.
Information Technology
The Center for Data Innovation ranked the Beehive State within the top 10 states for data innovation, showing the strength of information technology in the region. Last year, tech occupations across all industries in Utah reached an estimated 75,800, with the strongest YoY job growth occurring in the categories of packaged software, telecommunications services and computer systems design and IT services. Examples of top IT companies that call Utah home include BambooHR, Lucid Software, Instructure, HireVue, Domo and Venafi.
Health Technology
Several Utah companies are leading a technological revolution in the healthcare industry. Jaybird invented a new type of activity tracker that tracks different types of fitness separate from one another. ICON Health and Fitness blends wearables with the iFit app to improve users’ health. Great Basin Scientific created a molecular diagnostic platform to diagnose infectious diseases. SolutionReach integrates hundreds of PM, EHR and EMR systems to deliver about 1.8 million messages per day between doctors and patients. Additionally, Collective Medical Technologies Inc. announced it will expand in Utah, adding nearly 600 jobs over several years.
The entire tech industry has its eyes on Utah. Based solely on these three industries, we’re giving them quite a show.
