Citizen Health, a patient-driven platform redefining care for rare diseases, announced it has secured $30 million in Series A financing. This round was led by 8VC with support from Transformation Capital and Headline, bringing total funding to $44 million since its launch in December 2023.
Citizen Health, founded by Farid Vij and Nasha Fitter, empowers patients—especially those with rare and complex conditions—by integrating AI, community support, and health data to enhance their care. The platform enables users to interpret medical records, track symptoms, learn from peers, manage appointments, and navigate their care.
With nearly half of American adults living with chronic illness, Citizen Health introduces a personalized AI Advocate to connect fragmented healthcare and improve patient outcomes through proactive AI agents.
Vij and Fitter previously led Citizen, acquired by Invitae in 2021. Citizen Health unites experts in AI, healthcare, privacy, and tech, focusing on rare disease advocacy and patient empowerment.
This is some of the momentum the company has seen:
- Built 60+ communities for 123 rare conditions
- Partnered with 70+ advocacy groups (70% organic)
- Achieved 98.3% patient data-sharing rate; data accepted by FDA
- Collaborates with 10+ pharmaceutical partners
Addressing the needs of 400 million people globally with rare diseases, most of whom lack approved treatments, Citizen Health supports innovation aligned with FDA guidance and shifting NIH funding priorities. As genetic testing expands, the platform provides vital resources for newly identified disease groups.
Citizen Health will launch its AI Advocate in Q3 to select communities and release a new product for advocacy organizations, focusing on recruiting top talent and expanding partnerships across the healthcare ecosystem.
KEY QUOTES:
“Today’s patients aren’t waiting—they’re searching, deciding, and expecting more. They deserve the same clarity, personalization, and intelligence in healthcare that they get in every other part of their lives. At Citizen, we’re building a personalized AI Advocate for every patient that not only helps people make sense of their health journey, but actually guides them to what they should do next—and connects them to it. This is about turning passive systems into proactive, human-centered experiences.”
Farid Vij, CEO and co-founder of Citizen Health
“We backed Citizen because they are redefining the care model for patients with complex disease. Citizen’s AI advocate is the foundation of a pioneering patient and caregiver experience that is already helping thousands of Americans answer previously unanswerable questions, make informed medical decisions, and accelerate new cures.”
Sebastian Caliri, Partner at 8VC who led the Series A round and joined the Citizen Board of Directors
“Citizen has truly created a groundbreaking platform that supports individual patients looking to manage rare and complex diseases, while also giving patient advocacy groups a better way to organize their data, and pharma leaders a better way to utilize that data for drug discovery and trials. It’s rare to see a company combining such expertise in AI and consumer design to impact healthcare, and we’re proud to back Farid, Nasha, and the rest of the team.”
Mathias Schilling, Founding Partner at Headline who also invested in the round
