RISA Labs, a company developing an AI-driven operating system for oncology, said it has closed an $11.1 million Series A financing to expand deployments across cancer clinics, health systems, specialty pharmacies and infusion networks in the U.S.
The round was co-led by Cencora Ventures and Optum Ventures, with participation from Oncology Ventures, Z21 Ventures and John Simon, the company said.
RISA is positioning its platform as an automation layer for some of the most time-consuming administrative steps in cancer care, including patient access, benefits verification and prior authorization. The company said its system connects to electronic medical records as well as payer and benefits systems, using AI agents that can gather required information, prepare submissions, track authorization status and advance cases across multiple payer environments. RISA said the agents can adapt as payer forms, rules or interfaces change, reducing the need for continual workflow reprogramming.
A central element of the product is BOSS Console, which RISA describes as a control panel that lets institutions configure workflow routing, documentation conventions and practice-specific rules, while providing traceability for audit and compliance needs. The company said the system is purpose-built for oncology’s operational complexity, including multi-drug regimens and disease-specific requirements tied to payer policies.
RISA said its technology is already live at some of the largest oncology practices in the U.S., and it shared performance metrics from a partner site where it claimed roughly 80% of administrative staff time was freed up, denials fell by up to 40%, and first-pass approval rates reached 97.8%. The company also said authorizations are now filed within 24 hours of request and are on track to drop below two hours, compared with an average eight-day backlog, while more than 20 full-time equivalents were repurposed to higher-value work.
RISA said it plans to deepen its focus in oncology over the next year by partnering with ecosystem players to broaden AI-driven workflows across the continuum of cancer care, with specialty pharmacy operations identified as a near-term expansion area built on the same platform foundation.
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“In our vision for oncology, there are two sides to every patient’s journey: getting them on the right therapy faster and deepening our understanding of the disease for the next patient through data.”
Kshitij Jaggi, Co-Founder and CEO, RISA Labs
“BOSS Console is a low-entropy thinking information machine. Modern oncology has created thousands of potential care paths for every patient. It has become essential to have an intelligent operating system that can absorb this complexity, remove administrative burden, and act as a companion to the most informed clinical decisions.”
Kumar Shivang, Co-Founder and CTO, RISA Labs
“As the treatments available for oncology patients increase in number and complexity, solutions to help streamline operational processes and enable efficient access to therapy become vital. We look forward to supporting RISA on their next phase of growth.”
Jason Dinger, Senior Vice President, Strategic Execution, Cencora
