Navina, which develops AI-powered assistant software for physicians, today announced that it has raised $22 million in Series B funding led by ALIVE, with participation from Grove Ventures, Vertex Ventures Israel and Shusterman Family Investments. Bringing the startup’s funding from the Israel Innovation Authority to $44 million, the proceeds will go toward product development and expanding Navinan’s footprint into home virtual and urgent care, CEO and co-founder Ronen Lavi told TechCrush.
Navina was founded by Ronen Lavi and Shay Pereira, who previously ran the Israel Defense Forces’ AI lab, and say they have built an AI “assistant” system for analysts suffering from data overload. Their work there inspired the products they built at Navina, which aims to help physicians immerse themselves in medical information.
“The money comes at a time when physician burnout is at an all-time high for the U.S. health care industry during the pandemic,” LaVey told TechCrunch in an email interview. “The Navina platform uniquely puts the right patient data in front of physicians at the right time to provide deep insight at a glance and actionable insights at the point of care.”
After all, several startups — and existing ones — are developing AI-assisted technologies for clinical settings. For example, there’s Suki, which raised $20 million to create a voice assistant for doctors, and BotMD, an AI-based chatbot for doctors.
Lavi says Navina is distinguished by her ability to “understand complex medical language,” including non-clinical data. A physician-led team trained on a dataset of imaging notes, consultation notes, hospital notes, procedures and labs integrate Navina’s AI systems with existing electronic health record software to identify potential diagnoses and attention-seeking quality and risk gaps.
Navina.ai uses AI to process and summarize information from medical records. Image Credits: Navina
“Navina differentiates itself in the way it structures and organizes information at the point of care, specifically for primary care physicians,” said Lavie. “Navina aligns with existing workflows and familiar tools, connecting physicians and staff where they are … with the goal of streamlining workflows to more efficiently serve patient populations and improve value-based care.”
One point of concern for this reporter is Navina’s investigative skills. While perhaps helpful, treatment algorithms have historically been built on biased norms and homogeneous data sets. The consequences were dire. For example, an algorithm for determining eligible candidates for a kidney transplant puts black patients ahead of white patients, even if all other factors are the same.
In response to a question about bias, Lavie said Navina will take steps to “address health inequities and biases” and “ensure greater accuracy of data sets and models.” He added that the company complies with HIPAA requirements and has undergone a third-party privacy audit and is in the “final stage” of SOC2 certification.
With “thousands” of clinics and support staff using the platform, Lavie said he doesn’t expect an economic downturn to have a significant impact on Navina. When asked about the company’s revenue and actual number of customers, he declined.
“The pandemic has given Navina and other health technology companies a boost as it forces patients and physicians to adapt to new treatment methods such as telemedicine and remote visits,” Lavie said. This has led traditional primary care providers to seek solutions that help them take responsibility for their patients even as they enter the health system.
Navina currently has 65 employees. It is expected to end the year at around 75.
