Concur co-founders join health-care tech company, open HQ in Seattle

Nov. 03--Concur co-founder Raj Singh has found a new company to lead, nine months after he and fellow Concur co-founder Mike Hilton left the Bellevue business- and travel-expense software company.

Singh and Hilton, who departed Concur after SAP bought the company for $8.3 billion, are both joining health-care management company Accolade, based in a Philadelphia suburb.

Singh will take over as CEO of Accolade, and the company will have dual headquarters in Seattle and Philadelphia. Hilton will serve as chief product officer, the same title he had at Concur. Concur's third co-founder, Steve Singh, Raj Singh's brother, remains at the helm of the Bellevue company.

Accolade partners with businesses and, occasionally, with health-insurance companies, to offer services that help patients navigate the health-care system.

Workers who have Accolade as part of their work employer health plan can call the company and get instant help with insurance claims, types of health provider to see, and answers to medical questions.

"(Health care) is an intimidating, opaque system," Singh said. "It doesn't make it easy to find what they need and to find it the first time."

Accolade aims to make it easier for patients to find what they need within the system, as well as to drive down health-care costs for employers.

It's also a big-data company, collecting information from patients' medical histories as well as their interactions with staff. It uses that information to help make predictive and preventive health-care decisions.

Accolade is part of a growing trend in the area to use big-data technologies in the health-care industry to offer personal health recommendations.

Bellevue-based Atigeo raised $18.4 million in September for its big-data system, and Seattle's Arivale raised $36 million in July to create personal health plans.

Accolade seeks to blend technology and human interaction to navigate the system, Singh said.

"There's a lot of things where you can say, 'Let's move it all to technology,' " Singh said. "But when it comes to taking care of your health ... that's not something you can offload entirely to technology."

Accolade's Seattle headquarters will grow quickly, Singh said, and is eventually expected to house a triple-digit number of employees.

"The intention is to build something enduring here," Singh said.

That doesn't mean the company will relocate its 700-plus employees, most of whom are in Philadelphia. Big technology companies need to have a "massive presence" in multiple cities, Singh said, as evidenced by the numerous Silicon Valley companies setting up outposts in the Seattle area.

Raj Singh will also join Accolade's board. Former CEO Tom Spann will become vice chairman and chief operating officer.

Rachel Lerman: [email protected]; on Twitter @rachelerman.

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