South Bend company nominated for Tech Company of the Year at Mira Awards
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A South Bend company has been nominated for “Tech Company of the Year” in the upcoming 25th edition of the TechPoint Mira Awards, an event honoring the “Best in Tech” to be held in Indianapolis on April 26.
Aunalytics is a data and analytics firm helping legacy businesses harness the power of data by using its proprietary software to inform strategic and operational decisions. The company is invested in seeing traditional businesses successfully innovate and thrive in the technology evolution.
Co-founded by Nitesh Chawla, Rich Carlton and Tracy Graham over a decade ago, the company works with banks, health care providers and manufacturers in secondary markets where it says technological advancements are scarce, leading to a disadvantage.
“This recognition of the execution of our mission to be the advanced computing infrastructure and primary advisors, powering analytics and IT innovation to traditional businesses is greatly appreciated,” Rich Carlton, president of Aunalytics, said.
Originally in the business of storing and protecting data, the company evolved to meet the rapidly changing tech scene. Over the past 10 years, Aunalytics built its own intellectual property, Aunsight, to help customers get actionable insight from the trove of data they have access to.
“We are on a very aggressive growth pattern of bringing advanced technology and AI to mid-market companies. Our focus is on organizations that need a combination of talent and technology,” Carlton said. “Aunsight allows us work with these large and mid-size businesses as their primary advisors for IT and analytic services, exposing them to talent and technology that would be very hard for them to get on their own in a model that really benefits them in a significant way.”
Aunalytics is one of a growing number of companies located outside of Indianapolis nominated for this year’s awards.
“On a personal level, I’m so glad they decided to participate from South Bend and have been able to build a company based largely upon the asset base that was available locally, the technology, expertise and talent,” TechPoint President Ting Gootee said. “They are helping a lot of companies across industries with digital adoption, so they have a special place based on model, market-timing, community building and a leveraging local asset perspective.”
Headquartered in the same city as the renowned University of Notre Dame, Carlton and his team set out to retain those students and attract others from all over the state, addressing the problem of talent migration.
“Now we retain Notre Dame people in our area, as well as bringing back students from the Midwest and all these different colleges and universities and hiring from our military,” he added. “It’s been a fun growth pattern, and we’re about ready to really blow it out.”
The organization was one of the first tenants at Ignition Park, former home to the Studebaker manufacturing campus. Aunalytics also operates offices in Michigan and Ohio in the U.S., as well as in Mumbai, India. The foray into Asia happened during COVID, when a manager, who Carlton described as excellent, had a family situation to take care of in Mumbai.
“It was just a natural growth expansion for us,” Carlton said. “Working with technology and data, there are so many things that happen overnight. The tasks the overnight team does in Mumbai helps us get ready for the next day here.”
As a majority of business interactions now occur online, Aunalytics helps companies like regional and community banks capitalize on their local connections with their customers.
“Community banks have a massive amount of local data and if I can mine that local data in the right way, it gives signals and insights into when to engage with customers, what to engage on and how to engage,” Carlton explained. “Now the bank can be personal and do the things they’ve always done and take care of their customers in a different way.”
Calling these traditional businesses “the fabric of any community,” Carlton added that these are the companies that would usually sponsor charity events, little league teams and also employ a largely local workforce, hence the need to ensure they have competitive advantage.
“Part of our whole mission is to give those folks the same opportunity with technology, with AI, so it’s not a threat, but something that can benefit them,” he noted. “They help answer the question, ‘How can I use this to do what I’ve done really well, which is serve the community, serve my customers, serve my patients, but do it in a different way, not running from that technology, but embracing it and using it in ways that can beat the bigger outside company?'”
Carlton and his co-founder Graham are both active members of the South Bend community, serving on several boards across the city.
“They have really been embraced by the community. We’ve watched as they’ve not only grown their business but brought people from all over the world to our community,” Jeff Rea, president of the South Bend Regional Chamber, said. “When we think of tech, everybody thinks of somewhere else besides Indiana, but there’s some cool and innovative things happening right here.”
Rea lauded Notre Dame’s presence in South Bend as a huge driving force for the city’s growth and advancement. He also applauded the Mira Awards for including more companies outside Indianapolis.
“They are very Indianapolis-focused sometimes because there’s some great Indianapolis tech stories, but we love that they’re recognizing that there’s some good tech happening outside of Indianapolis, and so to be included in that is a pretty great honor,” Rea added. “We’re excited to hear about their nomination for the Mira Awards; they have been great leaders in our community.”
Award organizers said they took active steps to receive applications from companies outside the state capital.
“A lot of these industry and community transformation activities are actually happening fast and furious in key markets outside of Indianapolis ,and so even if it’s only a two and a half hour drive sometimes we’ll be busy. Out of sight, out of mind, right?” Gootee noted. “So it does take that intentionality to reach out to them, to call them and drive a little more intentionality around cross-region collaboration.”
Aunalytics’ nomination serves as a great example for other businesses looking at the opportunity South Bend offers, Rea noted.
“We’ve got some good things happening on the Notre Dame campus, and we hope a lot of that will continue to spin off into real opportunities. People can look at what’s happened at Aunalytics and be hopeful for the success they can find here,” he said. “It’s a great example of good tech things happening in Indiana and how Indiana is ripe for that type of industry to take off.”
Organized by TechPoint, the Mira Awards annually recognizes outstanding achievements in the technology sector in Indiana and offers a valuable opportunity for innovators statewide to convene, network and recognize excellence in digital innovation.
Over 50 independent judges will lead the selection process for this year’s edition. A mix of professionals with generalist working knowledge around entrepreneurship, innovation and folks with deep domain expertise that have a relatively good understanding of who’s who, who’s doing what and what’s upcoming will determine the winners. None of TechPoint’s team members are on the panel, but they will be in the room, take notes and moderate in the event of a tie.
For the “Tech Company of the Year” category, the criteria focuses on the validity of the idea, financial performance, track record, customer adoption, growth aspirations and the potential to be industry transformative towards becoming the next leading company of the future.
Award organizers work to shine the spotlight on nominees and winners locally, regionally and nationally, ensuring the right audiences are aware of the company’s products and services.
“We look at Mira as two things,” Gootee said. “One, the continued brand equity momentum builder for these nominees or winners, and two is to try to piece sometimes disparate assets and stories together and really make it pop nice for our community in general.”
The other nominees for Tech Company of the Year include Authenticx, an Indianapolis based AI company in the health care space; Baker Hill, a financial services software provider based out of Carmel; and Republic Airways, a Carmel-based regional airline.
You can view the full list of Mira Award nominees by clicking here.