Qualified Health, a startup that works with health systems to evaluate and implement artificial intelligence technology, has raised $125 million in new funding to expand its business.
Founded in 2023, Qualified Health provides health systems with an enterprise-wide AI platform designed to facilitate safe and responsible AI integration while building capabilities for long-term AI investments.
Venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates led the startup’s Series B round. New investors Transformation Capital, GreatPoint Ventures, Cathay Innovation and Anthropic, and Menlo Ventures’ Anthology fund also participated. The round was also supported by existing investors SignalFire, Frist Cressey Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Healthy Capital, Town Hall Ventures, and Intermountain Ventures.
Axios first reported this funding round earlier this month.
This funding round represents Qualified Health’s third round of funding, following a $5 million seed round and a $25 million Series A, which was announced as a $30 million round in January 2025. The company has raised $155 million to date. Executives told Fierce Healthcare that the company’s current valuation is between $500 million and $1 billion.
According to Justin Norden, MD, CEO and co-founder of Qualified Health, there is a growing demand from health systems to work with companies that can deploy AI solutions across the enterprise, rather than offering isolated pilots. The company aims to serve as a long-term AI partner embedded in healthcare systems, operationalizing data and enabling the deployment of AI at true enterprise scale.
“We made a counter-conventional bet when we founded the company to lean into platform-first solutions. We want to be the infrastructure. We want to partner very deeply on everything from data integration to education and transformation across the entire employee base to a large number of workflows and agents managed, monitored, and evaluated on a single platform,” Norden told Fierce Healthcare in an interview about the latest funding round and Qualified Health’s growth.
Norden noted that the AI healthcare market will accelerate in 2026 as health system executives focus on value creation and seek AI implementations that deliver significant ROI.
Launched as a public benefit corporation, Qualified Health plans to deepen collaboration with existing health system partners and expand its footprint across the U.S. hospital market. The company plans to use the funding to invest in product development and engineering.
As health systems look to scale up AI, Qualified Health offers a platform that incorporates safety and governance, including clinician oversight, full auditability and traceability of decisions, clear source attribution, and continuous post-deployment monitoring, according to executives.
Qualified Health is currently growing rapidly, working with some of the nation’s most complex health systems, including Emory Healthcare, Rochester School of Medicine, and Jefferson Health, as well as all eight health care institutions in the University of Texas System, which consists of UT Medical Branch (UTMB), UT Health San Antonio, MD Anderson Cancer Center, UT Health Houston, UT Southwestern Medical Center, UT Health Tyler, UT Rio Grande Valley, and UT Dell Medical School. Austin.
The company currently supports 400,000 users, which represents about 5% of U.S. hospital revenue.
Health systems working with Qualified Health report that early implementations are already delivering measurable results.
“Working with Qualified Health allows us to develop and deliver the AI tools we need, while giving us confidence that they are being used safely and responsibly. Together, we are leading the way in using AI to transform patient care at Emory,” said Dr. Nabile Safdar, chief AI officer at Emory Healthcare.
At UTMB, Qualified Health established a secure data foundation across electronic health records and non-EHR data sources, deployed multiple assistants and automated workflows, and generated more than $15 million in measurable execution rate impact within the first six months.
“Qualified Health has been an excellent partner in building and executing our AI strategy at UTMB,” said Peter McCaffrey, MD, UTMB’s Chief AI and Digital Officer. “Their team brings deep expertise and a real willingness to dig deep with our clinicians, operators, and leadership teams. Together, we were able to focus on the highest priority opportunities, move quickly from idea to implementation, and stay ahead of the curve as we navigated this period of rapid change. Our ROI has already exceeded expectations.”
At Mercy, leaders are using this platform to reimagine workflows across the health system.
As health systems implement AI, executives are faced with the challenge of integrating fragmented data sources and incorporating AI into real-world clinical and operational workflows while maintaining strong governance.
The Rochester School of Medicine health system is focused on implementing safe and responsible AI technology within administrative workflows, said Chief Applications Officer Lisa Nelson.
(Working with Qualified Health) “allows us to leverage their infrastructure and discipline as we work toward a centralized system-wide strategy to deploy AI while maintaining and building the highest quality patient experience and health outcomes,” Nelson said.
The company’s leadership team is comprised of healthcare and AI experts, including clinicians, AI engineers, policy experts, and healthcare professionals. The founding team includes Norden, a former faculty member at Stanford University, former partner at GSR Ventures, and CEO of TrustworthyAI, which was acquired by Google/Waymo. Kedar Mate, MD, former president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement; Shantanu Phatakwala, former Chief Data Science Officer at Haven and former VP of Research and Development at Evolent Health. and Dr. Beau Norgeot, former VP of AI at Elevance.
Three years ago, Qualified Health’s co-founders recognized the need for health systems to prepare for a long battle with AI adoption, Norden noted, and wanted to approach health systems as a platform first, with safety, governance, and evaluation at the forefront.
“We felt this big shift was coming in early 2023. Health systems have generally been very responsive to technology trends coming through some of their key partners. “Can we have more ownership, more control, more guidance, more speed? Health systems want to be part of this, they want to control this, but there was a recognition that they might not be able to do all the pieces alone,” he said.
“We are living in the midst of a generational shift, where AI will not only enhance the way organizations work, but fundamentally transform them from within,” NEA co-CEO Mohammad Makhzoumi said in a statement. “With NEA’s nearly 50 years of experience building companies, we believe that the organizations that shape the next era of healthcare innovation are those that help health systems fundamentally rethink all administrative and clinical workflows, and Qualified Health is just that company. We are excited to lead this funding and partner with Justin and the team to accelerate the AI transformation of healthcare and shape the future of healthcare enterprises across the country.”
Mr. Makhzumi has joined Qualified Health’s board of directors following the financing.
