Matt Hawkins
CEO | Waystar
What emerging market trends or disruptions are you preparing your company for?
Healthcare providers are operating in one of the most complex and costly environments we’ve ever seen. Administrative waste now exceeds $440 billion annually, with more than 450 million claims denied each year — forcing providers to spend roughly $20 billion trying to overturn them. Rising denial rates aren’t just a financial challenge; they also drive burnout, limit access and erode the patient experience.
We see this moment as a true inflection point for U.S. healthcare. The system must improve, and providers deserve technology that removes friction rather than adds to it.
At Waystar, we’re preparing for these emerging pressures by accelerating AI innovation. Our platform is purpose-built to simplify healthcare payments so providers can focus on patient care. Building on more than a decade of AI leadership, we introduced agentic intelligence to advance the autonomous revenue cycle. Waystar AltitudeAI has already helped prevent $15.5 billion in denials in under a year, powered by 7.5 billion annual transactions and data from one in three U.S. hospital discharges.
These capabilities reduce manual work, relieve nurse and staff burnout ahead of the projected 2030 workforce shortages, and cut correction workloads by ~40%. As complexity rises, we’re committed to innovating ahead of the market so our clients can operate with greater speed, accuracy and confidence as we work to simplify healthcare payments.
What are you most looking forward to accomplishing in 2026?
2026 is about impact. Providers are under immense pressure, and Waystar is uniquely positioned to give them relief — through automation, intelligence and a unified platform built to help them thrive. I’ve never been more confident in our direction or more energized about the future.
This year, I’m most looking forward to delivering the breakthroughs that will define the next era of Waystar. This is the year we begin to turn our vision of the autonomous revenue cycle into reality. We are leading healthcare’s AI transformation by advancing the autonomous revenue cycle, leveraging unmatched proprietary data and deep domain expertise to deliver meaningful outcomes for providers.
I’m energized by the momentum we’re building: deeper cross-sell, strategic alliances, faster innovation cycles and a culture that’s fully embracing AI. Most of all, I’m excited to deliver technology that helps providers operate with more speed, accuracy and confidence so they can focus on caring for patients. 2026 is our opportunity to raise the bar for healthcare, and we intend to lead.
Describe the growth of your company in recent years. What other major achievements did the company accomplish under your leadership?
Waystar has delivered strong, consistent and scalable growth, reflecting durable demand for our platform and sustained trust from healthcare providers. In 2023, we generated approximately $791 million in revenue, growing 12% year-over-year. In 2024, revenue accelerated to $944 million, a 19% increase, reflecting strong client retention and expansion. In 2025, revenue reached $1.1 billion, representing 17% year-over-year growth. Adjusted EBITDA also grew 21% year-over-year.
This performance demonstrates the resilience of our business, the scale advantages of our unified platform and the trust healthcare providers place in Waystar. Strong net revenue retention — consistently above 110% — and expanding enterprise adoption continue to propel our growth. Our results show that even through industry volatility, Waystar is delivering predictable, profitable growth at scale.
In 2024, Waystar debuted on the public market, raising nearly $1 billion in our initial public offering. The IPO served as a bellwether for the revival of the IPO market, particularly in the software and healthcare sectors. Waystar recorded the year’s largest healthcare and largest software IPO in the U.S., representing a significant vote of confidence in our ability to deliver sustainable growth and long-term value creation.
AI-powered innovation remains central to our strategy and builds on over a decade of leveraging AI across our platform. In 2025, we launched Waystar AltitudeAI, including the industry’s first generative AI capabilities targeting denial prevention and recovery. Following its rapid adoption in the market, clients have leveraged Waystar AltitudeAI to prevent billions in claims that payers would have otherwise denied, achieve 95% time savings, and increase denial overturn rates by double digits.
Late last year, we also completed the acquisition of Iodine Software, extending Waystar’s AI leadership into clinical intelligence software and unlocking greater value for clients and shareholders.
We now serve over 30,000 clients, representing over 1 million distinct providers, including 16 of 20 institutions on the U.S. News Best Hospitals list. Waystar’s enterprise-grade platform annually processes over 7.5 billion healthcare payment transactions, including over $2.4 trillion in annual gross claims and spanning approximately 60% of U.S. patients and one in three U.S. hospital discharges.
These results underscore the scale, resilience and impact of Waystar’s platform as we simplify healthcare payments and help providers operate with greater speed, accuracy and confidence.
