Nick Culbertson
Co-Founder and CEO of Protenus
Founded in 2014 by me and my business partner, Robert Lord, Protenus was born of a determination to solve problems in healthcare that would provide better patient outcomes and increase patient trust in the healthcare organizations where they sought care.
Although hospitals in the U.S. spend $39B per year to maintain compliance, most of it goes towards time-consuming, inefficient manual tasks. We thought the money could be better allocated to improving patient outcomes, so through innovation began to tackle common healthcare compliance challenges. First focusing on protecting patient privacy, we then broadened our scope to issues of healthcare workers stealing or misusing controlled substances.
The idea for Protenus was sparked while Robert and I were attending Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. We witnessed firsthand how digitized patient data could help streamline patient care but also realized the increasing threats to this sensitive electronic data. We created the first algorithms as a research project to address a problem deemed “too difficult to accomplish”. These algorithms would later serve as the foundation for the AI-powered Protenus platform that’s working to innovate healthcare.
In the years since, we’ve empowered hundreds of healthcare organizations to reduce risk. We’ve also cultivated the largest collaborative user community of healthcare compliance peers and experts from Protenus, PANDAS, that continues to move healthcare forward.
That same innovation, determination, and community are still the pillars of Protenus today and carry us forward in our belief that the delivery of care should be without risk.
2014
- $1.2M seed funding
- Acquired 1st customer
2015
- Launched 1st prototype
- Closed 1st customer
2016
- $7M Series A
- 1st publication of Breach Barometer
2017
- v1 of Protenus platform launched
- 1st user conference (PANDAS)
- Rock Health Top 50 in Digital Health
2018
- 2nd Gen Protenus platform launched
- $11M Series B
2019
- KLAS Category Leader
- $17M Series C
- CB Insights Digital Health 150
- Named a Modern Healthcare Best Places to Work
- Gartner 2019 Cool Vendor
2020
- Forbes Best Startups in America
- KLAS Category Leader
- Received 1st Great Place to Work certification
- New patent on Patient Privacy Monitoring technology
2021
- $21M Series D
- Became a remote-first organization
- Great Place to Work Certified for 2nd consecutive year
- Forbes Best Startups in America for 2nd consecutive year
- New patent on Patient Privacy Monitoring technology
2022
- Great Place to Work Certified for 3rd consecutive year
- Forbes Best Startups in America for 3rd consecutive year
- 2 new patents on Patient Privacy Monitoring technology
- 3 new patents on Drug Diversion Surveillance technology
2023
- Great Place to Work Certified for 4th consecutive year
- 2023 Best in KLAS winners, Patient Privacy Monitoring & Drug Diversion Surveillance solutions
- The Tech Tribune Best Startups in Baltimore for 6th consecutive year
2024
- 2024 Best in KLAS winners, Patient Privacy Monitoring & Drug Diversion Surveillance solutions
- Awarded "Pharmacy 500" by RxInsider for 2024
- Great Place to Work Certified for 5th consecutive year
