Pune: In the bustling corridors of hospitals, where every second can mean the difference between life and death, there exists an invisible battle — one that patients rarely see but healthcare workers fight every day. Nurses search for equipment. Doctors wait for critical tools. Administrators juggle operational chaos.
It was in witnessing this quiet but persistent inefficiency that the seeds of Trackerwave were sown.
“The problem wasn’t the quality of care,” recalled Pradeep Vadakkekhatt, co-founder and director of Trackerwave. “It was everything around it — the operational friction that slowed down the delivery of care.”
Moment of realisation
Vadakkekhatt and Trackerwave’s co-founder Sudhakar Prakasam spent several years working in healthcare IT and medical devices in North America. It was a vantage point few had — standing at the intersection of technology and patient care, observing hospitals not just as centres of healing, but as complex operational ecosystems.
What they saw was a pattern. Across hospitals, regardless of geography, the same inefficiencies persisted. Nurses and clinicians — highly trained professionals — were spending an inordinate amount of time on non-clinical tasks such as locating equipment, managing documentation, coordinating workflows, etc.
“We kept seeing the same thing everywhere,” Vadakkekhatt explained. “Highly skilled healthcare professionals were being pulled away from patient care because systems weren’t optimised.”
{{/usCountry}}“We kept seeing the same thing everywhere,” Vadakkekhatt explained. “Highly skilled healthcare professionals were being pulled away from patient care because systems weren’t optimised.”
{{/usCountry}}At the same time, hospitals were under increasing pressure. Patient volumes were rising. Skilled staff were in short supply. Expectations were higher than ever. The consequences were significant — longer waiting times, overworked staff, and frustrated patients.
“Even when clinical care was excellent, the experience suffered,” Vadakkekhatt said. “And that ultimately affects a hospital’s reputation.”
It became clear that the problem was not just clinical, it was operational. And operations, unlike clinical outcomes, could be measured, optimised, and transformed.
“We strongly believe that what gets measured gets improved,” said Vadakkekhatt.
That belief would become the foundation of Trackerwave.
Birth of Trackerwave
In 2018, the founders took a decisive step. They established Trackerwave’s centre in Chennai, a city known for its deep engineering talent and growing tech ecosystem.
But, they were not just building another software company. They were attempting something far more ambitious: create a purpose-built operational intelligence platform designed specifically for healthcare.
At the time, existing solutions were either prohibitively expensive or adapted from industries like manufacturing and warehousing.
“Those systems weren’t built for hospitals,” Vadakkekhatt explained. “Healthcare has its own complexities, its own workflows, its own unpredictability. Trackerwave set out to change that. We wanted to build something alongside the people who actually run hospitals — doctors, nurses, biomedical engineers, administrators. This collaborative approach ensured that the product wasn’t just technologically advanced, it was deeply relevant.”
Building from ground up
Like many startups, Trackerwave began with limited resources but a strong vision.
“We started with a small but experienced team,” Vadakkekhatt shared. “People who understood hardware, software and healthcare operations.”
This multidisciplinary expertise would prove critical. The team built the platform from scratch, integrating multiple technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Ultra-Wideband (UWB), and LoRa. This allowed hospitals to choose the level of precision they needed, balancing cost and accuracy.
But, Trackerwave was not just about tracking assets. On top of the infrastructure, they developed over 25 ready-to-use workflows, covering everything from asset management and patient flow to staff safety and emergency response.
“We weren’t selling just a tracking system,” Vadakkekhatt said. “We were offering a complete operational platform.”
More recently, the company integrated AI-driven analytics, enabling hospitals to make smarter, data-backed decisions.
“One of our biggest differentiators is that our platform works on existing Wi-Fi infrastructure,” Vadakkekhatt added. “That significantly reduces deployment costs.”
Bootstrapped and determined
In an era where startups often chase venture capital, Trackerwave chose a different path.
“We’ve been proudly bootstrapped,” Vadakkekhatt said. The company was initially funded by friends and family, and over time, revenues began to sustain growth. We started off with ₹80 lakh initial investment and through the next eight years, we invested another ₹2.75 cores into the business. A total of ₹3.5 crores was invested as capital.”
The company expects to close this year’s revenue at ₹55 crores. The journey till here was far from easy..
“Like any startup, we’ve gone through the grind,” Vadakkekhatt admitted. “Especially during Covid, which came right at the beginning for us.”
However, the team remained committed. “We believed in what we were building. So we continued to invest our revenues in production, even during uncertain times,” Vadakkekhatt explained.
And, the results are there for everyone to see. Today, Trackerwave stands as a profitable company — an increasingly rare feat in the startup ecosystem.
“Our revenues continue to fund our innovation and expansion,” Vadakkekhatt said.
First big test
Every startup has a defining moment. The first real-world test that determines whether the idea will hold up. For Trackerwave, that moment came with Apollo Hospitals.
“Our first customer became our playbook,” Vadakkekhatt recalled. The deployment was intense. The entire team worked day and night. We were learning directly from doctors, nurses, administrators; understanding their workflows in real time.”
In reality, it was not just about installing technology. “It was about adapting to a living, breathing environment. “Every deployment after that helped us refine both our product and our approach,” he added.
That early experience proved invaluable. Today, Trackerwave’s platform operates in over 135 hospitals globally, processing more than one million events every day.
“For us, that scale is the strongest validation,” Vadakkekhatt said.
Rethinking go-to-market
However, selling technology to hospitals is notoriously complex. Multiple stakeholders. Long decision cycles. Budget constraints. Trackerwave approached these challenges with simplicity.
“We wanted to make adoption easy,” Vadakkekhatt elaborated. “Instead of offering fragmented solutions like asset tracking, patient tracking, staff safety, we bundled everything into a single integrated platform.”
Pricing was equally innovative.
“We based it on the number of hospital beds. Not on devices, users, or modules,” Vadakkekhatt explained.
This eliminated complexity and made budgeting predictable. More importantly, it removed a lot of friction in the buying decisions.
Another key advantage was infrastructure. “Because our system works on existing Wi-Fi, hospitals didn’t need expensive upgrades,” he said.
The strategy worked. Starting with Apollo Hospitals, Trackerwave now serves eight out of 10 corporate hospital brands in India.
Scaling impact
What began as a focused solution for operational inefficiencies has over time grown into a global platform.
Trackerwave’s technology now supports hospitals in managing everything from patient movement to emergency response. Behind the scenes, it ensures that the right equipment is in the right place at the right time. That staff is safe. That workflows are optimised. That patients receive better care.
“We’re not replacing healthcare professionals,” Vadakkekhatt emphasised. “We’re enabling them to do what they do best — care for patients.”
The road ahead
However, the company is not one to sit on achievements. Having come a long way, Trackerwave still considers it just the beginning. But, their goal is set far and standards high.
“We want to become the global standard for how hospitals run efficiently,” said Vadakkekhatt.
The company is already expanding beyond India, with a growing presence in West Asia and plans to enter the United States and Europe.But, the vision does not stop at healthcare.
“We’re taking what we’ve learned and applying it to other industries.- manufacturing, defence, factories... Anywhere operational efficiency and safety are critical. The core problem — tracking, coordination, optimisation — exists everywhere,” Vadakkekhatt said,
Startup with a purpose
At its heart, Trackerwave is more than a technology company. It is a response to a deeply human problem. A recognition that in healthcare, time is not just money, it is life. By addressing the invisible inefficiencies that slow down care, Trackerwave is quietly transforming how hospitals operate. And in doing so, it is ensuring that doctors and nurses can focus on what truly matters.
“The goal is simple,” Vadakkekhatt said. “Better operations, better care, better outcomes.”
In a world increasingly driven by technology, Trackerwave reminds us that the most meaningful innovations are those that empower people, not replace them.
And, sometimes, the biggest impact comes not from what patients see, but from what they never have to.