Medical AI startup OpenEvidence doubles valuation to $12 billion in latest round

Jan 21 (Reuters) - OpenEvidence, an AI startup whose tools are used by U.S. physicians, has raised $250 million in fresh funding at ​a $12 billion valuation, the Nvidia and Google Ventures-backed company said on ‌Wednesday, doubling its value in just three months.

The surge in generative AI investment has so ‌far centered on consumer and productivity software, but OpenEvidence highlights a shift toward specialized medical applications as hospitals and physicians increasingly rely on AI to support clinical decisions that can affect patient outcomes.

The Series D round was co-led by ⁠Thrive Capital and DST Global, ‌bringing OpenEvidence's total funding to nearly $700 million, the company said.

OpenEvidence was valued at $6 billion in October, when it raised ‍roughly $200 million, according to PitchBook data. The valuation jump underscores intensifying investor enthusiasm for healthcare-focused AI companies that can demonstrate real-world adoption.

Founded by Daniel Nadler, OpenEvidence develops a ​specialized AI-powered medical search engine that helps clinicians quickly find and ‌synthesize information from peer-reviewed journals and clinical guidelines.

The company said its platform is used on a daily basis by more than 40% of physicians in the United States, across over 10,000 hospitals and medical centers.

By limiting its training data to trusted medical sources and securing formal partnerships with organizations such ⁠as the New England Journal of Medicine ​and the American Medical Association, the company aims ​to address concerns around accuracy and trust that have been hurdles to AI adoption in healthcare.

OpenEvidence said it supported about ‍18 million clinical consultations ⁠from verified U.S. physicians in December, up from around 3 million consultations per month a year earlier.

The startup said it would use ⁠the new capital to invest in research and development and to scale its AI architecture, ‌which routes physician questions to specialized medical systems.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram ‌in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)