Risa Labs, a Palo Alto health technology startup focused on oncology operations, has raised an $11.1 million Series A round to expand deployment of its AI operating system across U.S. cancer clinics, health systems and specialty pharmacies.
The financing was co-led by Cencora Ventures and Optum Ventures, with participation from Oncology Ventures, Z21 Ventures and John Simon through Ventureforgood. The round follows a $3.5 million seed raise announced in 2025 led by Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal.
Founded in 2024 by Kshitij Jaggi and Kumar Shivang, Risa is building an AI operating system for mission-critical healthcare workflows. The company’s initial focus is oncology, where administrative complexity, payer rules and staffing shortages frequently delay patient access to treatment.
“In oncology, delays are costly for everyone involved, but especially for patients. If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, every day matters. What we’re trying to do is remove the administrative friction that slows care down,” Jaggi said.
Risa’s software connects directly to electronic medical records, payer portals and benefits systems, using a network of AI agents to manage patient access, benefits verification and prior authorization. The system adapts as payer rules, forms or interfaces change, reducing manual rework by administrative staff.
“We’re not building a chatbot or a thin copilot. We’re building an AI operating layer that can actually read, reason, and act across the systems that cancer centers already depend on,” Jaggi said.
The company reported early operational results from live deployments. At one large oncology practice, administrative staff time has been reduced substantially, denials have dropped by as much as 40 percent and first-pass authorization approval rates have approached 98 percent. Authorizations that once took days are now being filed within 24 hours, with some sites approaching turnaround times measured in hours rather than days.
“We’re saving two to four days on every treatment we touch,” Jaggi said. “If a patient would have started therapy on Friday before, now they can start on Tuesday or Wednesday. That difference is meaningful.”
Risa is live at eight oncology practices and has an additional 15 under contract. Across those sites the system is processing thousands of cancer cases each day, a volume the company expects to increase as new customers come online over the next year.
Investor interest from the venture arms of large healthcare organizations underscores the scale of the administrative burden Risa targets. Optum is part of UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, while Cencora is a Fortune 10 pharmaceutical services company with deep ties to specialty pharmacy and drug distribution.
“As the treatments available for oncology patients increase in number and complexity, solutions to help streamline operational processes and enable efficient access to therapy become vital,” said Jason Dinger, senior vice president of strategic execution at Cencora.
Risa’s seed round helped establish the company’s strategy of reducing treatment delays through administrative automation rather than influencing clinical decision-making. “We draw a very clear line,” Jaggi said. “Our system supports administrative and medical-necessity workflows, but we keep human supervision at key checkpoints. Customers can choose how autonomous they want the system to be.”
With the new capital, Risa plans to expand its go-to-market team, deepen deployments at existing customers and extend its platform into specialty pharmacy workflows while remaining focused on oncology. “Oncology is one of the most complex operational environments in healthcare. If we can solve it here, we’re building a playbook that can eventually apply elsewhere. But right now, depth matters more than breadth,” Jaggi said.
The company frames its mission in patient terms as well as operational metrics. “This work matters because it changes what patients actually feel in the system: less waiting, less uncertainty and faster access to care,” Jaggi said.
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