Melbourne-based startup Heidi Health has raised US$65 million (A$98 million) in a Series B funding round, just seven months after securing nearly US$27 million in a Series A extension.
The funding round was led by Point72 Private Investments, the venture capital arm of New York hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen.
It also saw participation from existing investors, including Australian VC firm Blackbird and US-based funds Headline and Latitude, which is the growth fund of Phoenix Court.
This new funding round values Heidi Health at about US$465 million (A$704 million), which is over 450% higher than its US$100 million valuation in May. So far, the AI-powered medical notes startup has raised a total of US$96.6 million in venture funding.
Heidi also plans to raise an additional $5 million through a “community round,” which will allow doctors who use the platform to invest.
In March, Headline led a A$27 million (US$16.6 million) top-up to Heidi’s earlier $10 million Series A round from October 2023. Before that, Blackbird led the A$5 million seed round in 2021, when the company was still called Oscar.
The new funds will help Heidi grow its 200-person team and expand its offices and support network in the US, UK, and Canada. The company is also eyeing growth in other regions, including France, Spain, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Heidi has also strengthened its leadership team by hiring Paul Williamson, a former Salesforce and Plaid executive, as chief revenue officer, and Dr. Simon Kos, Microsoft’s former chief medical officer, for the same role.
Dr Kos said Heidi not only improves delivering care for clinicians but also the patient experience.
“Heidi’s bold vision extends beyond the current promise of ambient voice technology and into a future where every clinician can leverage AI to expand their clinical capacity while protecting the human touch in healthcare,” he said.
The startup is continuing to evolve its “AI Care Partner”, which automates administrative work for health clinicians.
CEO Dr. Thomas Kelly, a former vascular surgery resident, started Heidi (originally called Oscar) in 2021 along with Waleed Mussa, a former Goldman Sachs analyst, and Yu Liu, a former data scientist at Coles.
Heidi’s AI platform listens to and processes conversations between doctors and patients, then automatically creates clinical notes and follow-up documents such as referral letters and medical assessments.
Dr Kelly said that in just 18 months, Heidi has returned more than 18 million hours to frontline clinicians by streamlining critical administrative tasks.
“It is untenable that healthcare demand continues to rise while clinical time continues to shrink,” he said.
“Building a sustainable healthcare system requires expanding clinical capacity without compromising clinician wellbeing or patient safety.”
Doctors from over 200 medical specialties have used Heidi for more than 73 million patient consultations. The platform now handles over two million consultations every week in 110 languages across 116 countries.
In Australia, Heidi is used by Monash Health — which runs 40 facilities, including 7 hospitals — and by Queensland Health’s Children’s Hospital and Health Service.
Point72 managing partner Sri Chandrasekar said they are impressed by how quickly Heidi has been adopted by healthcare systems around the world.
“We believe administrative burden is contributing to clinician burnout and capacity challenges across healthcare systems.,” he said.
Heidi’s platform has the potential to meaningfully improve how clinicians manage their administrative workflows.
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