Healthleap has secured $38 million in seed and Series A funding to build an AI system that scans hospital records for patients at risk of undiagnosed illnesses.
The financing combines an $8 million seed round co-led by Sequoia Capital and First Round Capital with a $30 million Series A led by Hummingbird Ventures. The company has not disclosed its valuation.
From diet tool to hospital scanner
Jemima and Josiah Meyer founded the startup in South Africa in 2022. It began as a clinical nutrition tool for dietitians before pivoting to a broader platform aimed at spotting conditions like malnutrition or delirium early enough to help.
CEO Josiah Meyer told TechCrunch that a patient’s chart contains two types of information. Structured fields hold labs, weights, and vital signs. Clinicians’ written notes contain the most telling signs, such as poor appetite, recent weight loss, muscle loss, and trouble swallowing.
Healthleap’s approach extracts affirmative or negated mentions of these clinical concepts in a scalable way.
Current reach and targets
The platform is currently deployed in more than 50 hospitals. It screens patients for conditions such as malnutrition and delirium.
The startup has also built programs to identify aspiration pneumonia, pressure ulcers, and the risk of readmission for congestive heart failure. These newer features are undergoing further clinical validation.
How the system works
To find patients at risk of an illness or those who remain undiagnosed, Healthleap connects to a hospital’s electronic health record system. Language models pull information from written notes, such as references to recent weight loss or difficulty swallowing.
That analysis feeds into risk models alongside structured information like lab reports and vitals. The system surfaces patients who may need a closer look. The company states its software does not diagnose patients; it only highlights items for additional review.
Each night, the system analyzes every adult inpatient’s record. This includes lab results, vital signs, weights, medications, diet orders, diagnoses, and clinicians’ notes.
Each morning, the system writes a risk score into the care team’s existing workflow. A dashboard holds additional information about the patients’ trends.
Why malnutrition matters
Malnutrition likely served as a useful starting point for Healthleap. It is a condition that often goes undiagnosed and can adversely impact patient recovery in a variety of ways.
Research suggests 20% to 50% of hospital inpatients are malnourished. Some studies have linked malnutrition with longer stays, impaired wound healing, infections, and other complications, as well as higher morbidity and mortality.
Growth and pricing
Healthleap has grown from three hospital partners to more than 50 over the past year. Customers now include Penn Medicine, Cedars-Sinai, Intermountain, Houston Methodist, and Emory Healthcare.
Revenue has grown more than 10x over the same period, though specifics were not disclosed.
The startup sells three-year contracts priced according to a hospital’s licensed bed count. It also uses an outcome-based pricing model.
Healthleap uses the hard ROI that the hospital finance team validates and attributes to the company as the measurable return. Based on that, the company contractually ensures it delivers multiples of the contract price.
To date, every customer has seen a 5x hard ROI or more. In some cases, annual total ROI exceeds 20x.
Proof of impact
At the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Healthleap states its malnutrition program resulted in $23.8 million in annualized financial impact. Of this, $6.3 million came from additional reimbursement and $17.5 million from shorter hospital stays.
What it means
The startup plans to spend the fresh cash on engineering, product, sales, and customer success. It intends to add support for identifying more conditions.
Meyer said the company ultimately wants to cover more than 40 major health conditions and expand into outpatient and home care.
