Ferry Health, a startup developing an artificial intelligence assistant for patient administrative tasks, has emerged from stealth operations with $9 million in seed funding. The capital round included participation from Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures, two venture capital firms, alongside a group of angel investors. The company focuses on deploying AI agents to handle the logistics of locating medical providers and securing appointments on behalf of patients.
Securing medical care often requires patients to navigate outdated insurance directories and remain on telephone holds to verify provider availability. To bypass these manual processes, according to a statement via PR Newswire, the Ferry Health platform uses automated agents to contact medical offices. The system identifies in-network physicians, verifies location details and subspecialty fit, and books the visit. Patients interact with the software through a messaging interface to complete the scheduling process.
Chief Executive Officer Mehul Mehta launched the company in early 2024 with co-founders Keyur Mehta and Andrew Buie. The founders developed the software after experiencing the administrative requirements associated with coordinating post-hospitalization care.
"When we were dealing with my dad's care after a hospitalization, we saw firsthand how much of the burden falls on patients and their families in between visits to the doctor's office," said Mehul Mehta, CEO and co-founder of Ferry. "Finding specialists, understanding costs, dealing with insurance all required countless phone calls back and forth. It all adds up to a serious hurdle for people trying to access healthcare, and we saw an opportunity to rebuild the patient's experience with agentic AI."
The company distributes its technology through enterprise agreements with health systems and insurance providers, along with care navigation platforms. Through these partnerships, more than one million patients across all 50 states have access to the scheduling tool. Management expects that user base to grow at least fivefold by the end of the year. Beyond initial consultations, early access users are testing the system to coordinate medical imaging and home health services.
Investors point to the gap between health data analysis and physical care coordination as a primary use case for the technology.
"We have never had more information on our health. Across our phones, inboxes, and health apps – AI insights are everywhere. What was still missing was the action layer: a reliable agent that gets you from insights to real-world, insurance-covered care," said Vineeta Agarwala, MD, PhD, General Partner at venture capital firm a16z, an early Ferry investor. "As a practicing physician, I know our healthcare system well and have helped many patients navigate it. When I tried using Ferry to coordinate care, it felt like magic."
Patients using the system report a reduction in the effort required to seek treatment.
"It felt like I had a team of 10 taking care of us," said Jeremy Zhang, who uses Ferry to help manage his mother's medical care. "My mom had orthopedic symptoms she might otherwise have ignored. When getting an appointment takes almost no effort, it's much easier to address a health issue instead of putting it off."
