Healthcare startup Abridge raises $150 million for AI model for clinicians

By Krystal Hu

(Reuters) - Abridge, a startup building artificial intelligence-powered clinical documentation tools, has raised $150 million in a Series C round, the company told Reuters, as more investors seek exposure to industry-specific generative AI applications.

The funding, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures, valued Abridge at about $850 million.

The company last raised funds just four months ago and was then valued at over $200 million, according to PitchBook data.

Abridge, founded in 2018, automates clinical notes and medical conversations for doctors. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company said it is working with thousands of clinicians through partnerships with hospitals, including the University of Kansas Health System and the Yale New Haven Health System.

Shiv Rao, CEO of Abridge and also a practicing cardiologist, said the company plans to use the fresh funding for hiring as well as acquiring and training purpose-built medical AI models.

While OpenAI’s powerful GPT models have won over consumers, companies are increasingly seeing the need for industry-specific models that are trained with domain expertise.

Hippocratic AI, another startup, has raised $65 million to train a medical AI model. 

(Reporting by Krystal Hu in New York; editing by Miral Fahmy)