Understood Care announced it has raised $8.4 million in total funding to expand its AI-native patient advocacy platform designed to help patients navigate the complexities of the U.S. healthcare system. The funding includes a $5 million seed round led by Rethink Education and Zeal Capital Partners, as well as $3.4 million in pre-seed funding led by 1984 Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator.
The New York City–based company plans to use the funding to accelerate development of Ava, its AI co-pilot, and expand partnerships with providers, payers, and community organizations. The platform is designed to address a major challenge in healthcare: helping patients manage complex administrative and logistical aspects of care.
As the U.S. population ages and healthcare systems grow increasingly fragmented, millions of patients face challenges coordinating appointments, understanding benefits, and navigating administrative requirements. The company says the need is particularly acute for older adults. More than 60 million Americans are currently over age 65, and that number is projected to reach 80 million by 2030.
Understood Care combines human advocates with AI-driven automation to support patients in scheduling appointments, accessing resources, completing applications, coordinating care, and addressing barriers such as transportation, housing, and medication affordability. The company leverages payment pathways introduced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in 2024 that support care navigation and whole-person care, allowing most patients to access its services at no out-of-pocket cost.
Through the platform, advocates assist Medicare patients remotely using video calls, phone conversations, and text messaging. These advocates often come from professional backgrounds such as nursing, healthcare administration, and social work, and work with patients until their issues are resolved.
Behind the scenes, Ava acts as an AI co-pilot to help advocates manage administrative tasks. The system can initiate calls, summarize medical records and call transcripts, draft communications, recommend resources based on past cases, conduct web searches when internal data is insufficient, and generate Medicare-compliant documentation for claims submission.
Each interaction on the platform contributes to a growing proprietary dataset that includes calls, transcripts, documents, workflows, resource recommendations, and outcomes. The company says this dataset enables the AI system to continually improve the quality and efficiency of patient advocacy.
Understood Care launched patient services in March 2025 and expanded its platform across all 50 states within eight months. The company currently supports thousands of patients, with active patients contacting advocates an average of five times per month while advocates proactively reach out roughly eleven times per month.
The company has also credentialed providers nationwide and established relationships with three of the largest Medicare Advantage plans in the U.S., positioning the platform to reach a majority of eligible patients. Understood Care expects to support more than 10,000 new patients in 2026 as it continues to scale.
KEY QUOTES
“As a healthcare operator, I’ve seen far too many patients get lost in paperwork, blocking access to the care they deserve. This reality demands a new kind of infrastructure. Existing solutions were not built to operate at the scale, complexity, or level of personalization that today’s patients need. We built the technology and payment model to deliver tailored, affordable patient advocacy at scale, bringing human support, hands-on problem-solving, and clarity to a system that rarely provides any of the above.”
Sam Wu, Co-Founder And CEO, Understood Care
“I’ve seen the urgent need for patient advocacy infrastructure first-hand as an ER physician. Understood Care is tackling a massive, underserved market with an AI-native solution that genuinely improves people’s lives during their most vulnerable moments. It’s rare to find an investment opportunity that combines exceptional talent, enormous commercial potential, and meaningful social impact.”
Farzad Soleimani, MD, Healthcare Partner, 1984 Ventures
“Understood Care is setting a new standard for what scalable, AI-enabled advocacy can achieve in healthcare. The founding team combines deep healthcare operations expertise with world-class engineering talent to create the AI and data infrastructure that will make patient advocacy as ubiquitous as telehealth, while maintaining the human connection that patients need most.”
Bridget Duru, Vice President, Rethink Education
“Navigating today’s healthcare system is one of the most critical and overlooked challenges facing older adults and their caregivers. Understood Care’s AI-native platform is unlocking new ways to embed care advocacy directly into healthcare workflows and scale support across a growing care advocate network. We believe this team is uniquely positioned to transform how aging populations access and experience care.”
Emily Zhen, Principal, Zeal Capital Partners
