Update October 2025: Smart Reporting has since been renamed Jacobian.
Munich Startup: Our last interview with Smart Reporting It's been three years now. What three milestones have changed your company the most in the meantime?
Wieland Sommer: Since then, as you might expect from a young company, a lot has happened. From our perspective, the signing of global strategic sales partnerships with General Electrics and Siemens Healthineers has been groundbreaking. This has made us instantly integrable worldwide. Last year, we successfully completed a Series B financing round Closing a deal worth over 15 million euros was also a milestone for us. With this momentum, we successfully launched our new products "SmartReport" – the fully language-based structuring of medical data – and "SmartWorX" – connecting data silos via an interoperability platform so that different hospitals have a common infrastructure – at the beginning of 2021.
Belief in the product took Smart Reporting further
Munich Startup: If there was only one thing you could mention here: What was the most important factor for your success?
Wieland Sommer: It may sound banal, but the most important thing for us was actually to always believe in what we were doing. Five years ago, many doctors still doubted that structured reporting and documentation would prevail and were still dictating on tape. Today, no one doubts the advantages of structured reporting and digitalization in the medical sector. But innovation cycles in medicine are long and require perseverance. Nevertheless, we are working on one of the most important topics for taking medicine to the next level: How can doctors generate better "real-world data" in their everyday work, and how can we use this to gain new information to improve treatments. The entire company is focused on this, and it is our deep conviction.
Munich Startup: You acquired another Munich startup in August 2020. What changes did this make for you? Do you have any tips for successful acquisitions?
Wieland Sommer: We have 'Health Data Pioneers' acquired last year and well integrated. We are even more convinced than before of the synergies. From our perspective, it was important that it was a complementary acquisition: We gained software and fantastic employees in one fell swoop, in a field where we would have had to laboriously build up expertise. The acquisition also perfectly aligned with our strategy and the guiding principle of "better data, better care" – in my view, that is definitely a success criterion for an acquisition. We continue to look for strategic acquisitions of technology startups that complement our technologies. We are always happy when founders or startups contact us.
The secret of successful internationalization
Munich Startup: At our last meeting in 2018, you were already well positioned internationally and represented in 50 countries, now in 90 – what is your secret for successful internationalization??
Wieland Sommer: A major obstacle for tech companies in the medical sector is the difficulty of international market penetration. From the very beginning, we relied on large international partnerships with well-known medical technology manufacturers, including Siemens Healthineers and General Electrics, and invested considerable effort in integration and scalable interfaces with other manufacturers. These sales partnerships are then of enormous value and greatly assist with internationalization.
On the other hand, we have a platform approach, which means that the 'Smart Reporting' solution can be offered worldwide. While it only has a flat integration, it is very targeted at early adopters in many countries. This approach has made us very well known internationally and has led to many collaborations.
Healthy growth requires focus
Munich Startup: What is the most challenging issue with Smart Reporting right now?
Wieland Sommer: We started with our technology in radiology: structuring medical data as soon as it's entered by the physician, thus guaranteeing the highest data quality. Last year, pathology was added. However, we now have many inquiries and projects that go beyond this and in which we see enormous growth potential, for example, in the area of clinical trials and pharmaceutical collaborations. Focus is paramount during this phase to enable healthy growth.
Munich Startup: And what impact did the Corona pandemic have on you?
Wieland Sommer: On the one hand, the pandemic has given a huge boost to digitalization in medicine because it suddenly became clear how ineffective the healthcare system is in such situations. For example, when data has to be sent to health authorities by fax, and so on. On the other hand, resources in many hospitals are even more limited than before due to the pandemic, and non-essential projects are being postponed. Finally, sales work has been made more difficult in some cases because the trade fairs so important for smart reporting were canceled and personal customer contact was no longer possible.
Smart Reporting: “The medicine of the future will be data-driven”
Munich Startup: In your opinion, what is the decisive factor for sustainable corporate development?
Wieland Sommer: The most important thing is the team: You need people around you who are just as committed to the guiding principle as you are as a founder, and who complement your skills and abilities. A network of investors and personalities who help open doors and accompany the company on its growth path is also a key success factor. Patience and perseverance are also crucial; especially in our deep-tech environment, not everything works out right away. However, it's worth persevering and not giving up.
Munich Startup: Where do you want to be in five years? And where in ten?
Wieland Sommer: In five years: By then, we want to become the leading software for data-driven medical documentation and data exchange between the various players. The medicine of the future will definitely be data-driven! And in ten years, we want to be one of the relevant players in the data-driven transformation of the medical market. In particular, many processes will be automated or at least partially automated. We are investing heavily in highly innovative projects that enable this automation and, of course, strategically also in the modeling of medical knowledge, so that at some point the software will be able to interpret the context of the medical data and make independent decisions.
Munich Startup: What is currently at the top of your desk?
Wieland Sommer: There is currently a large contract there that we are currently finalizing.
