Medical AI startup OpenEvidence doubles valuation to $12 billion in latest round

Jan 21 (Reuters) – OpenEvidence, an AI startup whose tools are used by U.S. physicians, has raised $250 million in fresh funding at a $12 billion valuation, the Nvidia and ‍Google Ventures-backed company said on Wednesday, doubling its value in just three months.

The surge in generative AI investment has so far centered on consumer and productivity software, but OpenEvidence highlights a shift toward specialized medical applications as hospitals and physicians increasingly rely on AI ‌to support clinical decisions that can affect patient ‌outcomes.

The Series D round was co-led by Thrive Capital and DST Global, bringing OpenEvidence’s total funding to nearly $700 million, the company said.

OpenEvidence was valued at $6 billion in October, when it raised roughly $200 million, ​according to PitchBook data. The valuation jump underscores intensifying investor enthusiasm for healthcare-focused AI companies that can demonstrate real-world ‍adoption.

Founded by Daniel Nadler, OpenEvidence develops ​a specialized AI-powered medical search engine that helps ​clinicians quickly find and synthesize information from peer-reviewed journals and clinical ‍guidelines.

The company said its platform is used on a daily basis by more than 40% of physicians in the United States, across over 10,000 hospitals and medical centers.

By limiting its training data to trusted medical sources and securing formal partnerships ‍with organizations such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Medical Association, the company aims to address concerns around ‍accuracy and trust ‍that have been hurdles to AI adoption ​in healthcare.

OpenEvidence said it supported about 18 million ​clinical ⁠consultations from verified U.S. physicians in December, up ‌from around 3 million consultations per month a year earlier.

The startup said it would use the new capital to invest in research and development and to scale its AI architecture, which routes physician questions to specialized medical systems.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing ⁠by Shilpi Majumdar)