Lotus Health AI raises $35M for AI-powered primary care

On Tuesday, Lotus Health AI announced that it has raised $35 million in a Series A round—which represents an early-stage venture capital funding round—co-led by CRV and Kleiner Perkins. This latest transaction brings the startup’s total funding to $41 million. Founded by KJ Dhaliwal, who previously sold the South Asian dating app Dil Mil for $50 million in 2019, Lotus Health AI officially launched in May 2024. The company offers a free primary care platform that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in 50 languages and is licensed to operate in all 50 U.S. states.

The platform uses Large Language Models (LLMs)—the broad category of AI models that power conversational chatbots—to facilitate medical care, including diagnosis, prescriptions, and specialist referrals. Similar to OpenEvidence, the technology synthesizes evidence-based research with patient history to generate treatment plans. Lotus Health AI claims its platform can see 10 times as many patients as a traditional medical practice, even when limiting patient visits to 15 minutes. To operate as a full medical practice, the startup maintains malpractice insurance, full access to patient records, and HIPAA-compliant systems, which adhere to U.S. health data privacy regulations.

Because AI models are prone to hallucinations, the company mandates that board-certified human doctors from health institutions including Stanford, Harvard, and UCSF review all final diagnoses, lab orders, and medical prescriptions. “AI is giving the advice, but the real doctors are actually signing off on it,” Dhaliwal said. This human-in-the-loop model helps the company navigate regulatory hurdles, such as state-by-state licensing restrictions for physicians. Saar Gur, a CRV general partner and Lotus Health board member, acknowledged the complexity of the approach, noting that while there are many challenges, the project is not equivalent to sending astronauts to the moon, though he characterized the venture as a major effort.

Lotus Health AI is currently competing with other AI healthcare startups, such as Doctronic, but differentiates itself by offering its services completely free of charge. Dhaliwal noted that future business models may include sponsored content or subscriptions, though the current focus remains on product development and patient acquisition.

Why it matters

Lotus Health AI is attempting to fundamentally reimagine the primary care model by using AI to facilitate medical care, including diagnosis and prescriptions, while maintaining human oversight to navigate regulatory hurdles.