In 2017, Nishith Khandwala was a Stanford computer science student with an idea\u2014that you could take existing radiology scans, and use AI to check them at scale and detect heart disease and heart attack risk early.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For years, he and classmate David Eng developed the project\u2014but even when it worked, they hit a wall. Hospitals more or less shooed them away, and it seemed like it might be time to move on. But in 2020, Khandwala\u2019s father had a heart attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cardiologist told us: \u2018There was actually a scan in the past that showed he had an increased risk of heart disease, I think we could have caught this earlier,\u2019\u201d said Khandwala, now CEO of Bunkerhill Health. \u201cCan you imagine? Think about the millions of patients for whom you could prevent those kinds of heart attacks. The key thing though was: We weren\u2019t unique in having a great idea. Great ideas are everywhere, we just don\u2019t translate them into reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bunkerhill\u2014which Khandwala cofounded with Eng in 2019\u2014takes its name from a single-season 2010s CBS TV show that was decisively panned, but had a central, sticky idea: that medicine can iterate faster. The startup, then, deploys AI agents to handle the tasks that hospitals most need to solve, from long wait times to missed follow-ups to paperwork backlogs. Bunkerhill doesn\u2019t suggest use cases so much as hospitals ask if the company\u2019s agents can solve a problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Currently, the company works with 15 health systems via its Carebricks platform, including Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Ballad Health, Intermountain Health, Sentara Health, Endeavor Health, and The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) Health. Embedded in its platform, the company has both operational agents and nine clinical FDA-cleared AI algorithms, including one that detects silent heart valve disease early and another that assesses osteoporosis risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bunkerhill disclosed its funding for the first time this week exclusively to Fortune: The startup recently closed its $25 million Series B, led by Khosla Ventures, bringing its total funding to $55 million. Sequoia, Felicis, Optum Ventures, and Y Combinator also participated in this latest round. Vinod Khosla\u2014known as an early OpenAI backer and Sun Microsystems legend\u2014has been backing healthcare companies for decades, and he thinks hospitals are more eager to adopt new technology than ever. AI is a mandate now, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoftware used to be a pain for hospitals,\u201d Khosla told Fortune. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a push to adopt it, other than the medical record and it sort of got in the way. Now, every hospital system is trying to adopt AI. When you switch the words \u2018AI\u2019 from \u2018software,\u2019 everyone wants to and needs to talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s certainly been true for UTMB, where 22 of Bunkerhill\u2019s agents are deployed. To UTMB chief AI officer Dr. Peter McCaffrey\u2014though the doctor-patient relationship must remain \u201csacrosanct\u201d\u2014AI is uniquely positioned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may be in an AI bubble overall, but if there\u2019s one place where the need for AI is extremely legitimate, I\u2019d say it\u2019s healthcare,\u201d said McCaffrey. \u201cWe don\u2019t need superintelligence to solve our biggest problems. We need average intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent months, especially, I\u2019ve noticed a minor tidal wave of funding flowing from VCs into healthcare AI admin startups. It\u2019s given me pause. I bring my hesitation to Alfred Lin, partner at Sequoia, who\u2019s been backing the company since leading Bunkerhill\u2019s $6.5 million seed round in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf your premise is that there are too many, I think it\u2019s great that there\u2019s too many,\u201d said Lin. \u201cThen, there\u2019s innovation and competition and hopefully the best ones win. If it\u2019s too few, that would be a bad thing. I much prefer having 1,000 flowers bloom, and the best ones will become durable over time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lin\u2014known as Sequoia\u2019s lead backer of DoorDash, Airbnb, Citadel Securities, and Reddit<\/a>\u2014said that he\u2019s drawn to industries characterized by regulatory capture, and that Bunkerhill fits squarely in that paradigm.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLike real estate with Airbnb<\/a>, or Uber<\/a> and DoorDash<\/a>, there\u2019s a regulatory capture in those industries, and healthcare isn\u2019t any different,\u201d said Lin. \u201cWhat [Bunkerhill] is trying to do across parties is hard, but it\u2019s also undeniable that there\u2019s opportunity to improve health outcomes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Khandwala has his own take on my question \u2018are there too many AI healthcare admin startups?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cWhy should a hospital need to work with 100 different companies to solve 100 different problems?\u201d said Khandwala. \u201cMost companies are still solving one narrow problem, and we\u2019ve moved past that.\u201d<\/p>\n See you tomorrow,<\/p>\n Allie Garfinkle Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today\u2019s newsletter. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n VENTURE CAPITAL<\/p>\n – Neko Health<\/a>, a Stockholm, Sweden-based health tech company, raised $700 million in Series C funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners and O.G. Venture Partners led the round and were joined by others.<\/p>\n – AdvanCell<\/a>, a Boston, Mass. and Brisbane, Australia-based developer of cancer therapies, raised $315 million in Series D funding. Ally Bridge Group and Alpha Wave led the round and were joined by Bain Capital Life Sciences and others.<\/p>\n – Alpaca<\/a>, a San Mateo, Calif.-based agent-first brokerage infrastructure, raised $135 million in funding. Peak XC led the round and was joined by Elefund, Opera Tech Ventures, and others.<\/p>\n – Emergent<\/a>, a Bangalore, India-based AI software creation platform, raised $130 million in Series C funding. Creaegis led the round and was joined by Claypond, Sentinel Global, and others.<\/p>\n – Spectro Cloud<\/a>, a San Jose, Calif.-based AI infrastructure management software company, raised $100 million in Series D funding. Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives led the round and was joined by AMD Ventures, Ericsson, LG Technology Ventures, and Maximus.<\/p>\n – Hemispheric<\/a>, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based company developing an AI platform designed to decode the human brain, raised $52 million in funding from Hanaco Ventures, OneMind\/Awareness Capital, Protocol Labs, and others.<\/p>\n – TYLsemi<\/a>, a San Jose, Calif.-based chiplet platform, raised $43 million in funding. Matter Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Viola Ventures, GHOVC, Egis Technology, and others.<\/p>\n – Velocity<\/a>, a London, U.K.-based enterprise stablecoin payments and treasury platform, raised $38 million in Series A funding. Dragonfly and Firstmark led the round and were joined by Coinbase, Capital One Ventures, QED Investors, Activant Capital, Ripple, and Wintermute.<\/p>\n – Monumental<\/a>, an Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based developer of bricklaying robots, raised $32 million in Series B funding. Khosla Ventures led the round and was joined by Plural and Hummingbird.<\/p>\n – Risk Ledger<\/a>, a London, U.K.-based supply chain security company, raised $32 million in Series B funding. Axiom Equity led the round and was joined by Mercia Ventures and others.<\/p>\n – Syntetica<\/a>, a Paris, France-based developer of textile recycling technology, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Ecotechnologies 2 led the round and was joined by SWEN Capital Partners, lululemon, and others.<\/p>\n – Rime<\/a>, a San Francisco-based voice AI platform, raised $24 million in Series A funding. M13 led the round and was joined by Twilio Ventures, Corazon Capital, and others.<\/p>\n – Meticulous<\/a>, a London, U.K.-based code change verification platform, raised $15 million in Series A funding. VC Chemistry led the round and was joined by Menlo Ventures and others.<\/p>\n – Skalar<\/a>, a Munich, Germany-based AI-powered tax firm, raised \u20ac12 million ($13.8 million) across pre-seed and seed rounds. Headline led the round and was joined by futurepresent, QED Investors, Repeat, MS&AD, and Foreword.<\/p>\n – Cytronic<\/a>, a San Francisco-based robotics company for e-commerce fulfillment, raised $13.5 million in seed funding. Slow Ventures led the round and was joined by Geek Ventures, Failup Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Spacecadet Ventures, Weekend Fund, and others.<\/p>\n – Aina<\/a>, a San Francisco and Bangalore, India-based consumer hardware company, raised $5.5 million in funding. Redstart Labs and 360 ONE Asset led the round and were joined by MIXI Global Investments, Antler, Blume Founders Fund, and angel investors.<\/p>\n – EverSettled<\/a>, a San Francisco-based platform designed to use AI to streamline legal, financial, and administrative tasks after a family member dies, raised $5 million in seed funding. Emergence Capital led the round and was joined by Seedcamp, Bridge Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Entrepreneurs First, Transpose Platform, and angel investors.<\/p>\n PRIVATE EQUITY<\/p>\n – Amplix, a portfolio company of Gemspring Capital, acquired OneConnect<\/a>, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based technology advisory firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n – Ardian acquired a majority stake in Pflegia<\/a>, a Berlin, Germany-based AI-powered reverse-recruiting platform for the health care industry. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n – Podean, backed by Mountaingate Capital, acquired Social Commerce Club<\/a>, a Vancouver, Canada-based TikTok Shop agency. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n EXITS<\/p>\n – Invex Group acquired Redo Oy<\/a>, a Helsinki, Finland-based property remediation services company, from Mutares. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n – Leica Biosystems agreed to acquire StatLab Medical Products<\/a>, a McKinney, Texas-based developer and manufacturer of anatomical pathology products, from Audax Private Equity and Linden Capital Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n PEOPLE<\/p>\n
X: @agarfinks<\/a>
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n