This Healthcare Startup Duo Just Pulled Off a 4 Acquisition Streak, And They're Not Slowing Down
Slice of Healthcare Team
10/23/2025
Introduction
Hospitals are drowning in paperwork. These physician founders are throwing them a lifeline, one smarter note at a time.
What Smarter Technologies Actually Does
Smarter Technologies isn’t trying to automate doctors out of the picture. It’s trying to give them their time back. The company focuses on improving revenue cycle management in healthcare, which basically means helping hospitals get paid accurately and faster for the care they provide.
Their platform helps ensure clinical documentation (like physician notes) is both clinically meaningful and billing ready, without dumping more work on already overloaded providers.
Their latest product, SmarterNotes, ties it all together: it captures complex inpatient data to generate high quality clinical notes that also drive revenue accuracy. That combo is rare and timely.
How It All Started
Mike Gao, MD, co founder and CEO of Smarter Technologies, has a clear mission: cut the administrative bloat in healthcare and make sure hospitals can actually get reimbursed for the care they deliver.
Earlier this year, Smarter Technologies made a strategic acquisition: Pieces Technologies, founded by fellow physician Ruben Amarasingham, MD. Ruben’s team had been working on ways to make clinical note writing easier, especially in chaotic, high acuity settings like ICUs.
The two companies weren’t just aligned technically. They were aligned philosophically. As Ruben put it, “It was a perfect jigsaw puzzle coming together… almost a merging of soulmates of companies”.
Why This Move Stands Out
Revenue cycle tech isn’t typically built by physicians. That’s what makes Smarter different. Both Mike and Ruben have firsthand experience with the grind of clinical work and the exhausting burden of documentation.
Most documentation tools capture what doctors say. But in inpatient settings, where patients may be unconscious or hooked to machines, it’s not about what’s said, but what’s in the data. Think: 30,000 plus data points per ICU chart. That’s where SmarterNotes shines.
It automates the documentation process using structured data, not just audio, and then ensures those notes are optimized for billing. The result? Less burnout for doctors, better revenue for hospitals.
A Real Solution to a Real Pain Point
“For the last 20, 30, 40 years, we’ve asked physicians to do more and more,” Ruben said. “We want to get back to an environment where what they do and the note they write is the most important thing, not all the downstream junk”.
SmarterNotes tackles that directly: it handles the billing complexity behind the scenes, so physicians can focus on care, not coding.
Who It Helps
Hospitals, especially those drowning in complexity, see the biggest lift. Smarter’s tools are already improving financial performance for large health systems. And for the physicians on the front lines, it’s a relief: smarter notes, fewer hoops, more time for patients.
Where It’s Going
Smarter Technologies has already completed four acquisitions this year and they’re not done. The company now boasts a 70 plus person data science team with top tier talent from Stanford, Google, and Apple, paired with deep healthcare operations experience.
As Mike puts it, the goal is to bring tomorrow’s technology to solve today’s healthcare problems, without making life harder for the people doing the actual care.
Conclusion
Smarter Technologies and Pieces didn’t just merge platforms. They merged missions. In a field plagued by complexity and burnout, they’re building tools that put doctors first and make hospital finances smarter by design.
Stay tuned. This team’s just getting started.
Expert Insights
Share Your Expert Insights
Have relevant experience or professional perspective? Add your thoughtful insights to this article.
