Artificial intelligence company Anterior has banked a $40 million funding round as it looks to continue scaling its platform.
Anterior works with health insurers to deploy AI technology within the clinical workflow and pairs that tech with a clinician-led team that supports payers in optimizing accuracy and driving measurable impacts. The latest investment brings the company's total funding to $64 million.
The round included new backers FPV and Kinnevik as well as support from NEA and Sequoia Capital, according to an announcement.
Anterior founder and CEO Abdel Mahmoud, M.D., said the platform is designed to ease the back-office burden for health plans, including prior authorization, payment integrity and risk adjustment.
He said the tech aims to support situations where "there's huge amounts of unstructured data" that can make it harder for plans to make needed decisions.
Mahmoud said about 40% of the team at Anterior is made of up clinicians, many of whom have contributed directly to the platform's code base. That perspective, he said, is critical to making sure the technology is used ethically and safely.
"There are a lot of good principles that, as a clinician, healthcare gives you, such as: First, do no harm," Mahmoud said.
The company brought in a $20 million series A round in June 2024 and since then has deployed its platform with payers such as Geisinger Health Plan and worked alongside enterprise health technology partners like HealthEdge to build out key strategic integrations.
Anterior supports organizations representing 50 million covered lives.
It has also worked to build out its Forward Deployed Clinician model, according to the announcement.
Mahmoud said now that the company is in year three, there's more confidence in the market around AI and its place in healthcare. When Anterior first launched, there was plenty of promise for AI in healthcare, but the bar for implementation was quite high.
"Payers tend to be very cautious and make the right decisions and take a lot of time," he said.
In that early time frame, the company found early partners that were willing to work alongside the team to pilot and iterate on the technology. After about a year and a half, the focus shifted to the team's first full production deployments, allowing for more real-world evidence with clients.
That catalyzed the investors in the latest fundraise, he said, which will spur further growth opportunities.
"This funding helping us to really unlock that next level, once we've kind of earned our stripes, and proving this technology works," Mahmoud said.