Venture Capitalists See Big Opportunity for Agentic AI in Healthcare

The shift to agentic AI in healthcare is accelerating, with each day bringing new partnership announcements and venture capital deals.

On Sept. 30, San Francisco-based Assort Health, which says it has created a patient experience platform powered by specialty-specific agentic AI, closed a $76 million Series B financing round. In another example, Duke Health said it would co-develop and test agentic AI products with Trase Systems, with the first phase of development beginning at the Duke Heart Center.

Recently Healthcare Innovation interviewed Fawad Butt, founder and CEO of Penguin Ai and former chief data officer of UnitedHealthcare, Kaiser Permanente and Optum, about the transition taking place to the new world of agentic AI.

His Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has pulled in $29.7 million in venture funding and says its flagship platform combines task-specific small language models (SLMs), digital workers and agents, with a healthcare-specific AI platform to streamline processes such as prior authorizations, claims processing, medical records summarization, and appeals management.

“We built our own small language models for prior auth, risk adjustment, and claims adjudication, and then we give you our agents out of the box,” Butt said. “That’s what a platform is supposed to do. It’s supposed to give you what you need so you can get to ROI in 90 to 120 days.”

A blog post from the law firm of Morgan Lewis noted that in the third quarter of 2025, $17.4 billion was invested in applied AI, marking a 47% increase year over year. “Projections suggest that spending on agentic AI could reach $155 billion by 2030. The focus has shifted from developing large language models (LLMs) to integrating AI into workflows. Investors are prioritizing startups that demonstrate traction in enterprise adoption, with deal terms emphasizing integration over innovation.”

Assort Health’s funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with investments by Felicis, First Round Capital, Chemistry, A*, Liquid2, and Quiet Capital. Following a recent Series A round just four months prior, the company has raised $102 million to date and plans to use these funds to accelerate the development of its Assort OS platform.

Beyond the challenge of scheduling doctor's appointments, Assort Health says it has improved the patient experience across every touchpoint including care navigation, lab tests, prescription renewals, and physician referrals.

"At Assort Health, we are leveraging agentic AI to revolutionize the way provider practices and hospitals engage with patients to remove barriers to care," said Jon Wang, founder and co-CEO of Assort Health, in a statement. The company says that rather than occupying medical call center teams with routine calls and having patients in need of care left on hold, Assort Health integrates itself into EHR and practice management workflows with the use of AI and natural language processing to create ease for the patient and resolve any inquiries.

In another new agentic AI deal with a focus on scheduling, Santa Monica, Calif.-based Bonsai Health raised $7 million in seed funding led by Bonfire Ventures and Wonder Ventures. Since launch, Bonsai says, it has engaged more than 235,000 patients across more than 100 healthcare groups and specialty practices and scheduled over 36,000 appointments, helping patients receive timely care, freeing staff from repetitive tasks, and driving predictable growth for practices.

“Patients often miss care simply because practices don’t have the time or tools to consistently reach them. Our goal with Bonsai is to quietly take that work off staff’s plate, so patients stay on track with their health and practices can focus on delivering care,” said Travis Schneider, co-founder and co-CEO of Bonsai Health, in a statement. 

The $7 million in seed funding will accelerate Bonsai’s specialty-trained AI agents, expand into new medical specialties, and scale commercialization efforts nationwide.
“What Travis and Luke have built is nothing short of category-defining, an agentic AI platform purpose-built for healthcare. We believe this team is uniquely positioned to transform how practices operate, creating better outcomes for patients and stronger businesses for providers,” said Jim Andelman, co-founder and general partner at Bonfire Ventures, in a statement. 

Some health systems are partnering to develop their own AI agents. Duke Health just announced a partnership with Trase Systems to create advanced AI agents. 

The aim of the agentic AI initiatives is to streamline administrative assignments and optimize the allocation of resources, while also enhancing clinical functions such as patient scheduling requests, care coordination, and access to clinical studies, Duke Health said. 
 
Duke Heart staff will co-develop and test agentic AI products with Trase Systems aimed at enhancing clinician workflows, elevating the patient care experience, and improving health outcomes. The first phase of development will begin at the Duke Heart Center, which treats more than 65,000 people with heart disease every year.
 
"At Duke Health and Duke Heart, we are committed to advancing healthcare through innovation and research," said Manesh R. Patel, M.D., chief of the Division of Cardiology at the Duke University School of Medicine, in a statement. “AI has the potential to help our doctors, nurses, and researchers maximize the use of information to personalize cardiovascular care for our patients. We strive to develop proven and trusted tools that will improve health outcomes and create a better experience for patients and care teams alike.”