Nvidia's Venture Arm Backs $17 Mn Investment in Hippocratic AI for Gen AI Healthcare Agents

This funding is an addition to the company’s extended Series A round, which raised $53 million. To date, the startup has accumulated $137 million in total funding.

Hippocratic AI, a startup that emerged from stealth in May 2023, has secured a $17 million investment led by Nvidia's venture arm, NVentures, alongside Greycroft and Lee Shapiro of 7Wire Ventures. 

This funding is an addition to the company’s extended Series A round, which raised $53 million. To date, the startup has accumulated $137 million in total funding.

The partnership between Nvidia and Hippocratic AI began in March 2023 when the companies collaborated to build large language models (LLMs) for healthcare applications. 

With this latest investment, Nvidia has transitioned from partner to investor, marking its first healthcare-focused AI investment. Hippocratic AI aims to build the first large language model dedicated to healthcare, focusing on non-diagnostic, patient-facing tasks.

Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare, stated, “Generative AI can transform healthcare, enhancing patient care access. Hippocratic AI's use of Nvidia technologies enables more personalized, real-time patient interactions, fostering trust among clinicians and patients.”

Hippocratic AI is building generative AI-powered healthcare agents, which it claims can help alleviate nursing, social work, and nutrition staffing shortages. The startup’s platform offers 19 agent roles, from chronic care management to wellness coaching. 

These agents are designed to assist in non-diagnostic tasks, helping healthcare systems cope with workforce gaps.

Munjal Shah, founder, Hippocratic AI emphasized the company’s safety-focused approach, "We prioritized safety from the start, partnering with industry experts to ensure the technology is robust and reliable.”

Further, Hippocratic AI has developed a multi-phase safety testing process for its AI models. Early testing was conducted by licensed physicians and nurses who evaluated the agents' ability to perform essential tasks. 

The company has since conducted over 230,000 test calls, enlisting 4,500 US-licensed nurses for further safety checks. Shah highlighted the company’s focus on avoiding AI “hallucinations” and ensuring accuracy.

During tests, participants rated Hippocratic AI's agents on par with human nurses in safety and medical accuracy, outperforming general-purpose models like GPT-4 in medical contexts.

“Our collaboration with Nvidia has helped create low-latency interactions, allowing patients to connect emotionally with the AI agents,” Founder Shah noted.

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