Uber Eats alum lands $14M seed from a16z to repair WhatsApp chaos for LatAm’s docs

Caroline Merin, who spent almost a decade creating on-demand pace as the primary Latin American Normal Supervisor for Uber Eats and later the COO of Rappi, acknowledged how badly healthcare tech lagged behind. Whereas sufferers anticipated docs to reply as shortly as their supply apps, most medical professionals on the continent are compelled to depend on WhatsApp for all affected person communication.

“I believed, as a affected person, particularly as an American, how unimaginable that I can textual content my physician on WhatsApp, and so they’ll reply,” she informed TechCrunch.

However Merin additionally realized simply how overwhelming this communication technique had develop into for physicians. “A health care provider who sees 20 sufferers throughout the day, will get residence, has 100 messages and is anticipated to reply instantly and bear in mind who the affected person is with out the well being report in entrance of them,” she stated.

Merin, who had lengthy been eager about constructing her personal startup, noticed a possibility to enhance docs’ communication challenges. So, two years in the past, she launched Leona Well being, an AI-copilot built-in with docs’ WhatsApp accounts.

On Tuesday, Leona revealed that it raised $14 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Normal Catalyst, Accel, and the CEOs of Maven Clinic (Kate Ryder), Nubank (David Vélez), and Rappi (Simón Borrero). The startup additionally introduced that its service is now obtainable to docs in 14 Latin American nations throughout 22 medical specialties.

With Leona, sufferers proceed to ship messages on WhatsApp, however docs obtain and handle that communication by the startup’s cellular app. The app types all messages so as of precedence, suggests responses, and permits different crew members (like docs or nurses) to answer to sufferers on the physician’s behalf.

The startup can even quickly launch a totally autonomous agent that can deal with conversational scheduling and easy consumption.

Fixing the WhatsApp communication problem in Latin America is important as a result of, in line with Merin, sufferers in Latin America usually select their docs based mostly on their willingness to speak utilizing this channel

“These poor docs they’re receiving requests for very severe medical consults to, ‘I would like a letter for my youngsters’ college,’ or, ‘I desire a receipt for my appointment final week’,” Merin stated.

Since these messages can arrive within the evenings and on weekends, physicians are sometimes compelled to observe their WhatsApp across the clock. Leona solves this by instantly alerting docs solely to probably the most severe well being requests and permitting them to deprioritize extra routine or administrative questions.

“The thought is to assist the physician regain time,” Merin stated. “We’re listening to from our customers that they’re saving as much as two to a few hours a day by utilizing Leona.”

Whereas Leona is beginning by serving Latin America, the corporate’s long-term mission is to increase its providers to different geographies, the place, not like within the US, sufferers additionally demand to speak with their docs through WhatsApp, slightly than by digital medical information methods.

Leona’s crew of 13 is presently break up between Mexico Metropolis and Silicon Valley, the place, in line with Merin, the most effective AI engineers are positioned.