Rapidly growing ‘Uber for nurses’ moves to larger HQ in Tampa

Gale Healthcare Solutions, whose signature product is a mobile app called Gale — the name is a tribute to Florence Nightingale, the British nurse who’s widely considered the progenitor of modern nursing — has moved to a new headquarters facility at 3101 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Tampa, next to St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Founded in 2016 by Tony Braswell, in August the company was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing U.S. companies and now has more than 55,000 health care professionals using its service. Prior to that, in June, Braswell was named Ernst & Young LLP’s Florida Entrepreneur of the Year.

In 2022 alone, according to a news release, Gale closed a $60 million investment, hired Google veteran Kan Kotecha as chief technology officer and Tulsi Dharmarajan as chief product officer, doubled the size of its clinical workforce and expanded its services to include travel nurses and permanent placings. The company is also licensing its software to other health care firms.

With its workforce now exceeding 500 people, the release states, Gale Healthcare Solutions needed more space as it continues to work toward solving the nation’s large shortage of nurses.

“The nursing industry is in crisis, as the U.S. population ages and needs more care,” Braswell states in the release. “But our technology can solve this problem. By connecting nurses and health care facilities, Gale fills gaps in care instantly and empowers nurses to take control of their lives. Not only that — we’re creating good jobs in Tampa Bay, as we develop technology focused on ending the nursing shortage and bringing quick pay to more workers in health care and other sectors.”

With the Gale app, the release states, nurses see open shifts at health care facilities and can opt to fill those jobs in real-time. Nurses are also paid the same day, minutes after they finish work — a benefit Gale pioneered and continues to lead for the temporary health care staffing industry.

“Technology can solve our toughest problems,” Tampa Bay Economic Development Council President and CEO Craig Richard states in the release. “We’re proud to see a company born in Tampa Bay make a national impact — spotlighting Tampa as a hub for health tech innovation.”