a16z Bio + Health

Backing bold entrepreneurs who are engineering biology and reimagining healthcare.

[Jay Rughani @JayRughani]

I want to fund infinite healthcare apps.

AI that delivers more care and less paperwork. Companies like @CounselHealth, @EvidenceOpen and @TennrOfficial are leading the way.

If you are building this future, I would love to chat.

[Protege @withprotegeai]

“You hear this constant refrain of "we've run out of data." What does that mean? Our thesis is that there will be a company of that size and magnitude focused on data, because data is what's holding back further model development.”

Protege CEO and co-founder @BobbySamuels sat with @a16z's @daisydwolf & @evajsteinman for the latest episode of the @a16zBioHealth Raising Health Podcast.

Daisy and Eva led the a16z's investment in Protege’s latest fundraising round—the company’s third in less than two years.

Here’s a few of our favorite tidbits from Bobby:

📊 “The only way to advance model performance is through commensurate growth across those three buckets: compute, models, and data. And data is what's consistently lagging behind.”

🌐 “If you want data at the scale you need, you have to be able to leverage the real world.”

🤝 "Our take is that data holders should be compensated for the assets that they have. That's been a core tenet from the beginning."

🔗 Full discussion in thread!

[a16z @a16z]

America spends more per capita on healthcare than any other nation, but 90% of those dollars are spent managing chronic conditions after people get sick.

@truemed is changing that.

Truemed enables consumers to spend HSA and FSA dollars on evidence-based lifestyle interventions, shifting more of our healthcare dollars toward True Medicine: exercise, good sleep, supplements, movement – the things that prevent disease before it starts. Today, that includes Peloton, Eight Sleep, Barry’s, and many more.

Cofounder & CEO Justin Mares has a decade of experience as a serial founder in health, and we are compelled by his mission at Truemed to make prevention become the default setting of American health.

We couldn’t be more proud to be partnering with Justin and leading the company’s $34 million Series A.

By @daisydwolf, @julesyoo, and Eva Steinman

[a16z @a16z]

Our healthcare system makes life-saving therapies exceedingly expensive. Treatments that generate benefits for a lifetime have to be paid for upfront. Rounds and rounds of prior authorizations and negotiations between care providers and payers needlessly delay patient care.

That’s why Aradigm Health is building the cure-first future of healthcare coverage.

By pooling risk across employers and insurers, convening specialized provider networks, and orchestrating the entire patient journey, they're making million-dollar cell and gene therapies actually accessible – turning breakthrough science into breakthrough care.

We’re thrilled to back Aradigm’s Series A. They are an exceptional team.

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

Baylor Scott & White CEO Peter McCanna on where AI has the potential to bring efficiency to health systems today:

“We have to circle back to [systems deployed before AI] and say how do we really super charge them and put the rocket fuel of AI into them?”

“Our transfer center... it's complicated. Where do you put people in beds? How do you make that work?”

“Our navigation system... we have a product called Help Me Decide where you go through a symptom presentation online, but how do you inject AI into that so that you're triaging people to the right place?”

“AI in imaging is super powerful… it's so powerful that it would be malpractice not to deploy it.”

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

Formation Bio CEO Ben Liu on overcoming adverse selection in clinical trials:

“No one's willingly looking to get rid of a great drug. And so the reason why we play at this IND Phase 1 translational medicine juncture is because this is where we think the markets are most dislocated today.”

“Where we play, there's oftentimes not data yet to know.”

@formationbio @BenjamineYLiu

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

“What I observe is in most cases, people confuse motion and progress.”

Josh Weiner of CVS Health on how to balance speed and caution in the healthcare space:

 “Just because I got a pilot off the ground in one month, by no means suggests I set up for success.”

“ People don’t spend enough time saying, ‘Well, like what really are the risks?’”

Full episode: https://t.co/GtGgFqaNph

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

@malagappan @CounselHealth 🔥

[Jay Rughani @JayRughani]

Over 100 million people in the US are without a dedicated doctor. But it shouldn't have to be that way. The technology to scale medical advice exists today.

I’m proud that @a16z is doubling down to co-lead @CounselHealth’s Series A alongside our friends at @GVteam. On top of that, Counsel's medical AI is now available to anyone.

Our healthcare system is designed to ration access to our scarcest resource – doctor time. And in a world where clinician capacity is scarce, people are forced to turn to Google or ChatGPT for answers. Consumers ultimately need clinical resolution: the prescription, the lab test, the specialist appointment, the follow-up, the ongoing guidance and encouragement to change their lifestyle.

Counsel is building healthcare abundance for the AI era. We led Counsel’s seed financing last year because of our conviction in this bold idea: that we can build a world in which everyone has their own doctor for life. They’ve seen immense progress under the leadership of @malagappan, who was previously a Stanford-trained physician, AI researcher, and healthtech executive. I’m delighted to expand our support as Counsel redefines how we access healthcare.

@julesyoo @a16zBioHealth

[Muthu Alagappan @malagappan]

Today we’re launching @CounselHealth to the general public.

We believe Counsel is the most advanced combination of medical AI and human doctors in a single interface, and the easiest way to go from “I need advice” to “I’m getting care,” all from your phone.

Learn more about Counsel ⏬

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

Read the full article: https://t.co/iRIFTMUlfy

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

“One of the biggest unlocks in VC-backed tech was when companies started going full stack to challenge incumbents head-on (‘Challengers’), versus just building tools for incumbents (‘Enablers’).”

Healthtech is now following the same path. While tools for incumbents still dominate in volume, full-stack startups are catching up fast in capital raised and public market exits. To expand the TAM, we’ll need both.” - @julesyoo

[Daisy Wolf @daisydwolf]

It was an honor to speak with @Forbes about our decision @a16z to back @slingshotai_inc, the world's first foundation model for psychology.

We believe the best founders tackle the biggest, messiest problems. Mental health access is one of them. @danielreidcahn and @neilparikh are on a mission to help 1 billion people get mental health support.

Today, the company makes their consumer app Ash available to everyone. If you’re curious about what real AI therapy is like, give Ash a try (link in next tweet).

Also, congratulation to Slingshot on their new funding round, bringing total capital raised to $93M, and welcome to team @Forerunner (@nicoleahjohnson) and @Radicalventures (Aaron Rosenberg).

https://t.co/o1pLeLWu1N

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

None of the above should be taken as investment advice or an advertisement for investment services; please see https://t.co/KNaq4xviul for more information. For a full list of portfolio companies, visit https://t.co/ZpsyRidxcQ

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

What does it really take for tech-native founders to build in healthcare?

For Max Cohen and Cameron Behar of @sprinterhealth, it meant focusing on where tech could unlock scale without breaking clinical trust.

In a recent conversation with @julesyoo, they discuss how their model is reintegrates unengaged patients through various methods including the challenging frontier of in-home care: blood draws, eye exams, and virtual NP visits coordinated by a W2 workforce and a custom logistics engine. It’s tech-meets-operations in one of healthcare’s messiest frontiers.

Their advice to builders entering healthcare:
👉Don’t assume tech alone is the value. It’s how you fit into existing systems that counts.
👉You won’t win by ignoring regulation. Learn it. Design around it.
👉Be clear on what problems you are best suited to solve. Not every healthcare challenge is yours to own.

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

Listen here: https://t.co/LdE75FBCSj

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

None of the above should be taken as investment advice or an advertisement for investment services; please see https://t.co/KNaq4xviul for more information. For a full list of portfolio companies, visit https://t.co/kcDdDWMFW3

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

Navigating Medicaid coverage has become one of the most complex and pressing challenges in U.S. healthcare—driven by federal policies that impose stricter eligibility rules, frequent recertifications, and piling documentation requirements.

@hifortunahealth is building the end-to-end platform that simplifies Medicaid enrollment and keeps coverage continuous for those who need it most.

Combining AI-powered workflows, multilingual outreach , and deep integration across health systems, payors, and state agencies, Fortuna reduces churn by 15% and helps keep more than 25 million people continuously covered.

As CEO @singareddynm puts it, Fortuna is "building the infrastructure to ensure the Medicaid coverage experience is reliable, efficient, and designed around the needs of today’s consumer.”

Welcome Fortuna Health to the a16z Bio + Health portfolio!

Learn more: https://t.co/yYgjOUt51v

[a16z @a16z]

LLMs unlocked something wild for @InfinitusAI: 5M+ AI-powered calls, each 30+ mins long, automating benefit checks, prior auths, and Rx follow-ups.

That’s 100M+ minutes of healthcare on autopilot.

@julesyoo and @jain_ankit break down how payors built bot-only call centers, why agents were trained to push back when 25% of reps gave conflicting answers and why every call still rang Ankit’s personal cell.

[a16z Bio + Health @a16zBioHealth]

The healthcare system often leaves patients in the dark—lacking transparency, they’re left confused, sidelined, and uncertain about their own care.

@jain_ankit, CEO of @InfinitusAI, joins @a16z general partner, @julesyoo, to share how his team is building the solution.

The full discussion releases this Thursday June 26 on YouTube.