These are the 22 most promising healthcare AI startups of 2024, according to top VCs

Recommended by: Scott Barclay, Insight Partners

Relationship: No financial interest

Total funding: $23 million

What it does: Anterior makes AI-powered prior authorization tech for health insurers.

Why it’s on the list: Anterior provides its tech to clinicians working at health insurers to help them more quickly and accurately determine how medical services are paid for. The startup counts NEA, Sequoia Capital, and head of Microsoft AI Mustafa Suleyman among its backers.

Barclay said Anterior’s focus on health insurers smartly allows the startup to tackle a “valuable, immediate, and data-rich” problem in healthcare. He said Insight Partners is “excited about their road map of broad administrative applications.”

“The product boosts nurse productivity and decreases case costs, particularly valuable in an environment of nurse shortages and rising admin expenditures,” he said.

Startup: Charlie Health

Recommended by: Alex Morgan, Khosla Ventures

Relationship: No financial interest

Total funding: Not disclosed

What it does: Charlie Health provides intensive outpatient mental health services to teens and young adults online.

Why it’s on the list: Charlie Health is tackling the US’s worsening youth mental health crisis at a time when adolescent mental health specialists are few and far between, Morgan noted. He pointed to Charlie Health’s partnership with health system Houston-based Memorial Hermann, announced earlier this year — the nonprofit Mental Health America ranked Texas last in the nation in 2023 for access to mental health services. Charlie Health has also notched deals with other startups like Talkiatry and Mantra Health.

The company told Business Insider it’s using AI to match clients with therapists, groups, and evidence-based treatments by leveraging a mix of historical data, real-time analytics, and predictive insights.

Recommended by: Lynne Chou O’Keefe, Define Ventures

Relationship: No financial interest

Total funding: $95 million

What it does: CodaMetrix’s tech automates healthcare revenue cycle management.

Why it’s on the list: CodaMetrix grabbed a $40 million Series B in March to tackle one of the hottest use cases for AI in healthcare right now: billing and claims. Spun out of Mass General Brigham in 2019, O’Keefe said CodaMetrix’s origins and its resulting partnerships with top health systems have aided the startup in prioritizing cost, quality, and compliance.

“We believe their focus on the workflow for both physicians and medical coders is a critical part of success, ensuring their solution becomes fully integrated and eventually a vital platform for some of the largest health systems in the U.S,” she said.

Recommended by: Liam Donohue, .406 Ventures

Relationship: No financial interest

Total funding: $1.45 million

What it does: Equality AI helps healthcare organizations develop and deploy AI ethically.

Why it’s on the list: Equality AI, cofounded in 2021, graduated from the Alchemist Accelerator earlier this year to reduce unconscious bias in healthcare AI models. It’s launched several health system pilots this year and built a strong pipeline of prospective clients, Donohue said.

“We believe that smart, healthcare-specific guardrails will be essential for AI to realize its full promise. We particularly like that EqualityAI allows for the creation and execution of policies,” Donohue said, adding, “What they do is critical, and their momentum is impressive.”

Startup: Health Note

Recommended by: Yuanling Yuan, SignalFire

Relationship: Investor

Total funding: $24 million

What it does: Health Note automates clinical documentation around patient intake, doctor’s visits, and post-visit follow-ups.

Why it’s on the list: While a number of companies are competing to provide AI-powered medical scribe software to hospitals, Yuan said Health Note is unique because it seeks to automate documentation across the entire patient experience — from filling out intake forms to visiting the doctor’s office and checking in with patients after their care — and to surface clinical insights along that journey.

Yuan said Health Note has trained its AI on millions of patient records and thus can be dynamic in the patient intake process, asking the right questions of a patient and delivering a complete health picture to their doctors.

Startup: Jaan Health

Recommended by: Elizabeth Yin, Hustle Fund

Relationship: Investor

Total funding: $12 million

What it does: Jaan Health offers text-based care coordination for patients with chronic conditions and their providers.

Why it’s on the list: Jaan Health’s software, called Phamily, helps reduce the labor and cost burdens associated with chronic condition management, Yin said.

“There’s a lot of talk about AI, but Jaan Health is a poster child for how AI can help people. To date, they’ve automated millions of messages to patients, reducing work for providers to increase care at lower time and monetary cost,” she said.

Recommended by: Alyssa Jaffee, 7wireVentures

Relationship: Investor

Total funding: $84 million

What it does: NOCD offers virtual care for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Why it’s on the list: NOCD works with dozens of health plans to provide hard-to-get OCD care through its more than 300 specialized therapists. Jaffee noted that NOCD taps AI “to ensure that only top therapists are joining the NOCD network through rigorous evaluation.” NOCD’s data platform also uses AI for personalized content and better patient-therapist matching across its backend tech for therapists and its app for patients, she said.

NOCD last raised a $34 million funding round in February 2023, co-led by 7wireVentures and Cigna Ventures.

Startup: Photon Health

Recommended by: Michael Greeley, Flare Capital Partners

Relationship: Investor

Total funding: $16.4 million

What it does: Photon Health’s pharmacy fulfillment platform allows patients to receive their prescriptions on their phones and shop around for lower costs at nearby pharmacies.

Why it’s on the list: Photon Health’s prescribing tools use AI to improve prescription ordering and fulfillment, reducing costs while increasing the rates of script fulfillment and medication adherence, Greeley said. Flare Capital Partners led Photon Health’s $9 million seed round in August. The startup has landed partnerships with some big names in healthcare, from WeightWatchers to Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs.

“As the prescriber and retailer network scales with prescription volume, patients will be afforded lower-cost medication fulfillment options with greater convenience,” Greeley said.

Recommended by: Alyssa Jaffee, 7wireVentures

Relationship: No financial interest

Total funding: $32.5 million

What it does: Rippl provides value-based mental healthcare to seniors.

Why it’s on the list: Launched in 2022, Rippl has made key strides in dementia care this year, including notching a partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association and expanding its dementia-care services into new states like Texas, Jaffee noted. Rippl also acquired AI-powered dementia startup Kinto in April to help train and support more dementia caregivers.

Recommended by: Lynne Chou O’Keefe, Define Ventures

Relationship: Investor

Total funding: $4.5 million

What it does: Solara Health is building AI copilots for behavioral health.

Why it’s on the list: Solara Health, which is still in stealth mode, wants to address healthcare’s labor shortage with more efficient care starting in behavioral health, O’Keefe said. She said its AI platform helps automate both administrative and clinical tasks for healthcare workers to deliver high-quality, personalized mental health treatment to patients.

Solara raised a $4.5 million seed round in February, the company told BI. The startup said it also uses AI to help automate evidence-based treatments and training in behavioral health to help clinicians operate at the top of their licenses.

Recommended by: Deena Shakir, Lux Capital

Relationship: Investor

Total funding: $87 million

What it does: Waymark helps providers manage care for patients on Medicaid.

Why it’s on the list: Waymark, a public benefit corporation, designs technology and mobilizes community health workers to improve care for Medicaid patients. Shakir said Waymark “boasts some of the most impactful applications of AI in healthcare that I’ve seen,” pointing to its algorithm’s 90% accuracy in predicting avoidable ER and hospital utilization for Medicaid patients, according to a study published January in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.