Madison tech company behind thousands of apps
Ionic platform grows with internal software
Whether it’s logging a new beer on Untappd or buying a train ticket on the Amtrak app, the framework powering it was created by a Madison company.
Ionic is an open-source app development platform that operates across iOS and Android devices. More than 10% of the apps available for download in the Apple and Google stores are built on Ionic. That’s a low estimate of Ionic’s prevalence — most of the apps built with Ionic are not public.
What’s meant real growth for Ionic isn’t as flashy as customer-facing apps. Internal software built on Ionic is driving the company’s growth. It’s part of the digital transformation at companies. More and more, companies want to build their own software, not just for customer-facing needs but to digitize internal operations. Ionic wants to help every company build its own mobile apps.
Ionic started shifting focus to growing that enterprise business in 2018 and has doubled it every year since, said co
founder and CEO Max Lynch.
Ionic added 90 enterprise clients in 2019, bringing the total to 140. That also brought the company record revenue in 2019, Lynch said.
Ionic closed a $6 million round of fresh funding this month let by Arthur Ventures and General Catalyst. In all, Ionic has raised about $18 million.
Ionic is just on the edge of being profitable, Lynch said. The company has grown to 40 employees, around half of whom work in Madison from Ionic’s office a block from the Capitol.
“We have the ability to build something with staying power,” he said. “So I’m focused on just growing that and getting bigger and bigger.”
The sales pitch to use Ionic, rather than iOS and Android, is that while companies often already have employees who can program for the web, they’ve found that developing an app often involves a different skill set.
Enterprise clients like Home Depot, Mastercard and Burger King are looking to optimize the way that their businesses operate with apps for employee use. Financial services and health care are two of the top industries using Ionic, Lynch said. The Madison-based company competes with other cross-platform frameworks like React Native from Facebook and Microsoft-owned Xamarin.
At-home workout and fitness app Sworkit is built on Ionic. It has grown from around 100,000 active members in 2014 to millions of users completing workouts each month, said co-founder and vice president of product Ryan Hanna.
“We have the ability to build something with staying power. So I’m focused on just growing that and getting bigger and bigger.”
Max Lynch Ionic co-founder and CEO
The company’s internal applications to manage customer relations are built on Ionic, too. In all, Sworkit has five apps built on Ionic. The platform allows Sworkit’s 16-employee team to be efficient with a small development team, Hanna said.
Lynch and Ben Sperry founded the company as Drifty Co. in 2012 as an open-source project. The co-founders are childhood friends who graduated from Shorewood High School in 2006.