Anterior Secures $20 Million Series A to Unlock Administrative Efficiencies for Healthcare Payers

Clinician-built generative AI company utilizes advanced technology to reduce near trillion-dollar administrative burden in U.S. healthcare.

NEW YORK – Anterior, the AI company built by clinicians to transform healthcare administration, today announced the completion of a $20 million Series A funding round. The funding round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from Sequoia Capital, Blue Lion Global, and Neo. Previously named Co:Helm, the company recently rebranded to Anterior.

Anterior is on a mission to unlock doctors and nurses from the administrative burden they experience. The company’s first objective is to make prior authorization invisible, like the seamless communication that occurs when a credit card is swiped. Anterior’s technology leverages generative AI to clinically reason, delivering value out of the box, unlike the predictive AI models that have emerged in previous years.

“Our proprietary technology will reduce the administrative burden health insurers in the U.S. face, ultimately saving the country billions and enabling doctors and nurses to work at the top of their license,” said Abdel Mahmoud, M.D., co-founder and CEO of Anterior. “With half of our team being doctors or nurses, we deeply understand the problem we’re solving. We’re thrilled to join forces with NEA and have the continued support of our existing partners as we continue to put our technology to use for healthcare payers and the long-term benefit of patients across the U.S.”

Mohamad Makhzoumi, co-CEO of NEA, will join Anterior’s Board of Directors. “As NEA explores the outer edges of possibility in healthcare and technology, Anterior is a perfect fit for our portfolio. I’m excited to join the team in a board position as they supercharge their next stage of growth,” said Makhzoumi. “There is a critical need to create efficiencies in healthcare administration, and Anterior’s advanced technology can help streamline processes, reduce costs, and have a significant impact on the industry.”

This funding will help Anterior accelerate its hiring and growth strategies, ensuring the company continues to recruit and retain world-class talent and that its technology remains cutting-edge. Anterior’s AI clinical co-pilot, cleverly named Florence (Nightingale), tackles the challenges that weren’t previously solvable by technology. Keeping the clinician’s perspective at the center, Anterior nurses uniquely come to the company’s technology review stand-ups to inform product development and user experience. Anterior is designed so that all of its recommendations are thoroughly reviewed and approved by human clinicians.

“Five years from now, we want Florence to be as ubiquitous as a doctor’s pager but 100x smarter – a trusted partner to clinicians and a core component of healthcare payers’ strategy to create efficiencies and reduce costs,” said Jen Mueller, R.N., VP of Clinical Operations at Anterior and former health plan executive. “The current industry average for Medical Necessity Reviews is 10.5 complex cases per nurse per day. Florence can cut that time in half, and that’s just one of the problems we are tackling. The future of healthcare will be built on Anterior.”

The U.S. healthcare system spends $950 billion each year on administrative costs, largely driven by the expensive labor of clinicians whose clinical expertise is required for a variety of workflows. By starting with prior authorization, Anterior is solving an expensive and time-consuming component of the payer workflow, while also helping patients receive care faster. Eight in 10 physicians report that prior authorization can lead to patients completely abandoning a prescribed or ordered course of care.

“While our customers and patients across the U.S. are battling a nursing shortage, Anterior is giving nurses superpowers to unlock their productivity,” said Tahseen Omar, Chief Operating Officer at Anterior. “The payer side of healthcare requires thousands of nurses to be pulled away from patient care to do administrative work that requires clinical input. Anterior has started with creating efficiencies in prior authorization but our approach is applicable to risk adjustment, care management, payment integrity and more.”

"MedWatch's ultimate goal is to process cases quickly and accurately on behalf of payers, alleviating the burden on providers and stress on patients" said Valerie Limpus, Chief Operations and Technology Officer at MedWatch, one of Anterior's earliest customers. "Our nurses love that Florence supercharges them, allowing them to use their clinical expertise rather than digging through paperwork. Florence saves them time, and empowers them to confidently and efficiently make the final decision in any case.”

Anterior was founded by Abdel Mahmoud, M.D., a doctor turned engineer and a Facebook and Google alum.