SILICON VALLEY, CA / Business Insider / November 18, 2025 /
Our healthcare system is a paradox.
We invent the most advanced therapies and spend 17.6% of GDP (about $4.9 trillion) on healthcare, yet we lag peer nations on many health outcomes. About 90% of the expenditures are for people with chronic and mental-health conditions, but the care model still incentivizes sick care over health. Meanwhile, hospitals survive on low single‑digit margins, so every new tool must pay for itself fast. From our offices in Cambridge/Boston-the world's biotech hub-and Silicon Valley-the global center of AI, the science I see is ever-advancing, but the system is unforgiving. That tension shapes my thesis: invest in healthcare AI that delivers value now while laying the rails for vertical data-and-care platforms as models improve. In practice, that means (1) labor multipliers that expand clinician and researcher capacity and cut administrative waste, (2) care gateways that overcome access roadblocks and improve outcomes, and (3) data engines that automate workflows, often starting narrow, for example, medical coding, then compounding from there.
Five portfolio examples illustrate what we fund.
Arintra - autonomous medical coding and revenue assurance. Providers lose billions to slow, inconsistent revenue-cycle workflows. Founded by machine learning scientists Nitesh Shroff and Dr. Preeti Bhargava, Arintra is an AI-native platform that automates medical coding directly from the chart and pushes charges to billing with minimal workflow change. Arintra began by solving a narrow, reliable task-coding-and is expanding into the broader revenue assurance stack. Following a $21M Series A in August, the team aims to further bolster provider and system financial stability. So far, Arintra has helped its customers, such as Mercyhealth, Med First, and Endeavor Health, achieve up to 96% coding accuracy, a 43% reduction in denials, and 32% cost savings.
Simbie - Multilingual AI voice agents. Founded by Dr. Natalia Khosla and operator Rachel O'Driscoll, Simbie is building EHR-integrated agents that handle 60% of front-desk volume and answer clinical queries, reducing staff-to-physician ratios by one-third and recovering 10-20% of lost revenue. Revenue grew about 100-fold in under a year with minimal churn, driven by inbound demand. Like Arintra, Simbie started with a painful problem that AI can reliably solve-answering phone calls to recover revenue-and aims to become the operating system for patient-facing interactions.
LunaJoy - women's mental-health platform. As moms and practicing psychiatrists, Drs. Shama Rathi and Sipra Laddha understand how women face distinct mental-health needs across life stages yet often hit access hurdles. LunaJoy's longitudinal care platform combines services and data, providing virtual therapy, medication management, AI-based risk scoring, and care navigation. Everything fits into primary care and OB/GYN workflows-frontline for screening but typically resource-constrained for follow-up. The results: 100% of patients receive immediate care-navigation engagement via AI; specialty clinician training accelerated from 6 months to 2 weeks via AI-based patient simulation; 40% lower no-show rates than industry average.
Meru Health - evidence-based digital and holistic mental health. Co-founders Kristian Ranta, Riku Lindholm, and Alberg Nazander built Meru to bring structured, scalable care to people who are not getting better from traditional therapy alone. The platform's strength is measurement: standardized programs, holistic lifestyle medicine components, and a data layer that supports continuous improvement and payer conversations. In 16 peer-reviewed clinical studies, Meru has demonstrated two-fold better outcomes than traditional therapy or medication, and higher therapeutic alliance (measure of strength and quality of therapeutic relationship) ratings than standard therapy.
Cognito Therapeutics - pioneering non-invasive neuroprotection. Founded in 2016 to build on breakthrough research by MIT Professors Li-Huei Tsai and Ed Boyden, Cognito is developing a new class of non-invasive neuroprotective therapies for Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. Cognito's lead investigational platform, Spectris, delivers synchronized light and sound stimulation to evoke 40 Hz brain rhythms tied to memory, attention and structural integrity. In a feasibility study, Spectris demonstrated preservation of cognition (76%), function (77%), and brain volume (69%) vs. sham, with strong adherence (85%). With their pivotal trial fully enrolled and expected to read out in Q3 2026, the at-home, physician-prescribed therapy represents a scalable, data-driven alternative to drug-based approaches to preserve independence, reduce caregiver burden, and reshape how we approach brain health.
What we will be backing next.
Building in healthcare is both impactful and unforgiving. I look for teams that combine deep domain knowledge (often ex-clinicians or operators) with AI expertise; problems that AI can reliably solve now-with measurable clinical and economic outcomes-as the prerequisite and gateway to scale; and a path to vertical platforms as capabilities improve. This sequence earns trust and data, delivers ROI for margin-strained providers, and compounds into durable companies.
About FoundersX Ventures
FoundersX Ventures is an AI-first venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, CA, with offices in Cambridge and NYC. With over 100 early-stage investments, including nine unicorns and 30+ companies each valued over $100M, the firm drives innovation in enterprise AI, fintech, and digital health. Featured in WSJ Venture Capital Pro and Business Insider, the firm leads seed-stage deals and co-lead A round deals. Sizi Chen is a General Partner based in Cambridge. She leads the firm's research efforts and focuses on investments in AI across infrastructure, model, and application layers.