Caroline Merin

Founder @Leona_health via #Rappi | @Uber |@Wharton | @LauderInstitute | @Endeavor_Global | @CreditSuisse

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

Proud to launch @Leona_health today to scale human connection in healthcare. We have assembled the best team I've ever worked with to achieve our vision! Join us https://t.co/ZnuclbEsXh

[Leona @Leona_health]

Today, we are launching @Leona_health to scale human connection in healthcare.

Leona is the world’s first AI co-pilot for the millions of doctors who use WhatsApp to manage patient care.

We're proud to be backed by @a16z, @generalcatalyst, and @Accel powering our $14M seed and pre-seed rounds.

We're hiring, come join us! Read more here: https://t.co/SHqGVs7S6j

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

@JasonrShuman Would love to try it out! Feel like I’ve tried all of them and nothing has quite done it yet 👀

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

Vitor is a force of nature, and @DecadeWealth is building one of the most exciting companies in Latin America. Excited to see a product so many of us badly need finally come out of stealth!

[Decade @DecadeWealth]

Hoje a Decade sai do stealth, anunciando a maior rodada seed da América Latina.

US$ 85 milhões investidos por @benchmark , @Greenoaks e Diffusion para inaugurar uma nova categoria de serviços financeiros, a Inteligência Patrimonial.

Veja a matéria completa na @bloomberg

https://t.co/pSw3RUJOO0

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

After last night, 4 games. 4 wins. 0 goals conceded. Mexico's first World Cup knockout win in 40 years, and only the 4th team ever to start a tournament this dominant defensively. Y si sí? VAMOS! 🇲🇽 🏆

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

A feeling of possibility is everywhere in Mexico right now. You hear it in the streets, graffitied on walls, in every group chat. "¿Y si sí?" "What if it actually happens?"

Mexico isn’t expected to win the World Cup, but has won all three matches so far without conceding a single goal, for the first time in the country's history. 130 million people are feeling, all at once, that an improbable thing is actually happening.

It's the same with startups. Our job is to ask: what will the future look like when the impossible... actually happens? Leona is hiring people with the courage to see that future before anyone else does, and ask ¿Y si sí?

Join us → https://t.co/zMcEqfmAjs

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

Y si sí? VAMOSSSS 🙌🏻🏆

[FOX Sports @FOXSports]

The breathtaking celebrations are on in Mexico City after El Tri's historic win 🤯

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

@lizwessel @RappiLatam

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

A feeling of possibility is everywhere in Mexico right now. You hear it in the streets, graffitied on walls, in every group chat. "¿Y si sí?" "What if it actually happens?"

Mexico isn’t expected to win the World Cup, but has won all three matches so far without conceding a single goal, for the first time in the country's history. 130 million people are feeling, all at once, that an improbable thing is actually happening.

It's the same with startups. Our job is to ask: what will the future look like when the impossible... actually happens? Leona is hiring people with the courage to see that future before anyone else does, and ask ¿Y si sí?

Join us → https://t.co/zMcEqfmAjs

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

Gracias a @robertoah, @Jdsago y @eresinaeresina por sentarse conmigo y contarle a México lo que estamos construyendo con Leona!

[Leona @Leona_health]

Thanks to @ExpansionMx , @elheraldoco @eleconomista @Excelsior @saludiario and @Milenio for helping us share our vision. Leona Health exists for one simple reason: to give doctors their time back, starting by freeing them from endless WhatsApp threads and paperwork. Read more in the thread:

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

Read more about our vision at @Leona_health here: https://t.co/gJH7e24Dm4

[Leona @Leona_health]

What fun to celebrate doctors last week here at our launch party in Mexico City! They are the quiet heroes who, after hours in the clinic or at the hospital, go home to spend many more hours answering WhatsApp messages.

Leona exists for one simple reason. To remove friction and give them their time back. We thought there was no better way to welcome what’s possible when you have more free time than to have fun.

[a16z @a16z]

In many parts of the world, WhatsApp is the core operating layer for daily life, where families communicate, businesses run, and increasingly, healthcare is delivered. But WhatsApp wasn’t built for healthcare, and physicians can lose hours navigating disorganized threads.

Leona is building the fix: an AI-native operating system for providers, built directly into WhatsApp to bring clarity and clinical structure to patient communication.

Since launching its Latin America beta in April, they have expanded organically to thousands of physicians, processing millions of patient interactions across more than a dozen countries.

We’re leading Leona’s $14M seed round to build the world’s first AI copilot for doctors. Cofounders @merinsay, Tom Chokel, and Arela Solis bring deep operational and technical expertise, and we’re proud to partner with the team as they redefine how care is delivered across Latin America and beyond.

[Accel @Accel]

.@Leona_health is transforming WhatsApp into a healthcare OS for the world, giving doctors a mobile AI co-pilot to help them run their practice from anywhere. As a founder, Caroline brings rare product depth and a hopeful, ambitious view of the future of care. Excited for all that's ahead for this team. https://t.co/3zQjKL2fi0

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

The founder journey is better with friends like @celinehalioua—more fun, less lonely, and a daily reminder to raise the bar on what’s possible.

[Celine Halioua @celinehalioua]

GO CAROLINE

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

It was wonderful to chat with @MTemkin at @TechCrunch on our vision for Leona – the first mobile-first operating system for healthcare, powered through WhatsApp. While we're just getting started, we're proud to already be saving doctors 2-3 hours a day across 14 countries.

[TechCrunch @TechCrunch]

Uber Eats alum lands $14M seed from a16z to fix WhatsApp chaos for LatAm’s doctors https://t.co/ucydRXmrpV

[Amr (عمرو) Al-Shihabi @amralshihabi]

Kudos to @merinsay and the @Leona_health team on their launch announcement and seed raise from @a16z, @generalcatalyst, and @Accel .

We invested at the pre-seed and are proud to have watched Caroline and team tackle one of healthcare’s most overlooked truths: doctors and patients already live on mobile, yet healthcare systems still don’t.

Building an AI co-pilot for doctors that works natively inside WhatsApp is both deeply pragmatic and genuinely ambitious, especially starting in Latin America and building for the world. This is a rare combination of consumer intuition, operational empathy for doctors, and timing with AI that feels exactly right.

Excited to see Leona scale human connection in healthcare, not replace it.

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

@julesyoo and @JayRughani immediately understood the immense opportunity that lies in building a new operating system for care that meets doctors and patients where they already are. We are honored to have @a16z and the best possible partners & healthcare investors lead our Seed

[Julie Yoo @julesyoo]

Clinician and patient adoption used to be the holy grails of healthtech - how do you convince physicians to change their workflows and learn new tools outside of the EHR? How do you get patients to log into clunky apps that only pertain to one tiny slice of their healthcare experience? The beauty of @Leona_health is that it so elegantly leapfrogs those issues by integrating directly into the fabric of daily communications for billions of individuals worldwide, and by supercharging how physicians engage with their patients and ultimately run their practices, with AI.

@merinsay, @TomChokel and @arelasolis are bringing the magic of their platform to physician-patient relationships in 14 countries across 22 medical specialties, and we're thrilled to be partnered with them on this global journey.

@a16z @a16zBioHealth @JayRughani @GEVS94

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

Having @amitku and @Accel in my court since day one has been one of the greatest joys of the founder journey thus far. It is rare to find people who believe in you before you even have a well formulated idea.

[Amit Kumar @amitku]

.@merinsay is a superstar who has operated for a decade+ in operationally complex, regulated spaces. Thrilled to be a day-one investor in her and the @Leona_health team as they build an AI-native healthcare OS around WhatsApp, starting in LatAm but with global ambitions

[Jay Rughani @JayRughani]

New @a16z investment: Most of us think of WhatsApp as a simple messaging app, but in many parts of the world, it also functions as the operating layer of daily life. It’s where families communicate, where businesses run, and increasingly, where healthcare is delivered. In LatAm, more than 85 percent of physicians rely on WhatsApp to schedule appointments, share results, and manage follow-ups.

But WhatsApp wasn’t built for healthcare. Effective clinical communication requires structured workflows, clear accountability, and reliable tracking of patient needs. Instead, physicians are left navigating dozens of disorganized messaging threads with patients and families, with no visibility into urgency, patient status, and relevant clinical history. The result: hours each day consumed by manual sorting – time that should go towards patient care, not inbox management.

The system needs a better answer, and Leona is building it. Leona is an AI-native operating system for providers, built directly into the channel physicians already rely on most: WhatsApp. Through direct integration with the messaging app platform, Leona brings clarity and clinical structure to patient communication – organizing messages, flagging urgency, and connecting each exchange to a longitudinal patient record. This co-pilot for clinical messaging is part of a comprehensive practice management platform that facilitates scheduling, documentation, and billing.

The physician adoption is striking: since launching its Latin America beta in April, Leona has expanded organically to thousands of physicians, processing millions of patient interactions across more than a dozen countries, and saving providers up to three hours per day.

As care increasingly lives in messages and mobile moments – delivered virtually, asynchronously, and beyond the four walls of the clinic – the need for infrastructure that can coordinate clinical workflows becomes increasingly urgent. Leona is building that backbone.

Co-founders Caroline Merin (@merinsay), Tom Chokel, & Arela Solis bring deep operational and technical expertise to one of the region’s most urgent infrastructure challenges.

We @a16z are proud to lead Leona Health's seed financing as they redefine how care is delivered across Latin America and beyond.

@a16zBioHealth
@julesyoo
@generalcatalyst
@hollsmaloney
@marcbhargava
@Accel
@amitku
@homebrew
@satyap
@hunterwalk
@_KateRyder
@velez_david

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

It was fun to share more about what we’re building at @Leona_health with @pimepardo & @federicoantoni 🦁🚀!

[h1 @h1_copilot]

🎙 ¡Con AI todos tenemos superpoderes!

Increíble plática de @merinsay, founder de #LeonaHealth, en #Alto con @pimepardo y @federicoantoni
Donde nos platica de AI, Uber, Rappi, y mucho más!

YouTube 📺 https://t.co/XzRzrc6mLw
Spotify 🎧 https://t.co/ehatY5NxPR

[Caroline Merin @merinsay]

Excited to be an early user and investor in the @TryCoveAI team! Having seen @thestephenchau and @andyszy ’s talent first hand at UberEats, I’m confident there’s no better team to help us rethink and redesign how we can get the most out of AI

[Cove @TryCoveAI]

🚀 Today, we're thrilled to introduce Cove, a groundbreaking interface for thinking brilliantly with AI, and announce our seed round led by @sequoia

Cove is not a chatbot. It’s AI unconstrained by a chat thread or document editor.

See it in action:

[Ethan Mollick @emollick]

Two papers on the value of mixed gender teams for innovation:
🥼Analysis of 6 million medical papers shows mixed gender teams do more impactful & cited work
📈Randomized teams with different gender breakdowns ran a startup for a year. Teams close to 50/50 male-female did best.