In a healthcare system the place most cancers sufferers usually wait days—and even weeks—for life-saving therapies on account of administrative pink tape, RISA Labs is stepping in with a robust, AI-native resolution designed to get rid of one of the crucial persistent bottlenecks in oncology: prior authorization delays. Immediately, the Palo Alto-based startup introduced a $3.5 million seed spherical led by Binny Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart, with help from Oncology Ventures, Basic Catalyst, z21 Ventures, ODD BIRD VC, and Ashish Gupta.
RISA Labs’ mission is pressing: use AI to radically simplify and speed up the guide workflows that stand between most cancers sufferers and well timed remedy. In accordance with information from ASTRO surveys, 92% of most cancers sufferers face delays on account of prior authorization, and one-third of the medical doctors (33%) stated prior authorization has led to their sufferers abandoning radiation remedy, with a median of 1 in 10 sufferers leaving remedy.
On the core of RISA’s resolution is BOSS (Enterprise Working System as a Service), a full-stack orchestration platform that reimagines how healthcare workflows function. In contrast to typical AI assistants or robotic course of automation (RPA) instruments that break simply with system modifications, BOSS decomposes institutional workflows into micro-tasks and delegates them to an clever community of AI brokers, together with LLMs (Massive Language Fashions), digital twins, and reinforcement studying fashions.
Consider BOSS as an working system not for particular person customers, however for whole establishments. It operates throughout a healthcare group’s software program ecosystem, enabling a parallel digital workforce that enhances human groups.
As Kshitij Jaggi, RISA’s co-founder and CEO, states: “We’ve had Home windows, we’ve had Linux, we’ve had Mac—every OS helped people extract extra from machines. However now, we’re drowning in software program. Software program that was presupposed to get work achieved has change into work itself. BOSS is an AI OS for the post-ChatGPT period—the place work is not about studying instruments, however merely expressing intent.”
In real-world deployments, BOSS has already demonstrated its worth. At a number one U.S. most cancers middle, it minimize prior authorization occasions from half-hour to underneath 5, processed over $1 million in medicines, decreased administrative prices by 66%, and freed up 80% of workers time.
This isn’t nearly saving time—it’s about saving lives. As Dr. Jeffrey Vacirca, CEO of New York Most cancers and Blood Specialists, famous: “Each delay in remedy can have an effect on outcomes. Prior authorizations proceed to sluggish us down. What RISA is constructing isn’t just sensible know-how. It removes obstacles so our groups can transfer quicker and keep centered on what issues most: caring for sufferers.”
The Technical Coronary heart: An AI OS Constructed for Complexity
RISA’s BOSS is constructed for “low-entropy system design”, in line with co-founder and CTO Kumar Shivang. In observe, this implies creating environments the place AI brokers can operate effectively even within the face of excessive system complexity. Impressed by cognitive science rules like System 2 considering (which entails sluggish, deliberate, and logical decision-making), BOSS is designed to deliver a state of “circulate” to synthetic brokers—enabling them to function with precision throughout extremely regulated and multifaceted domains like healthcare.
By tightly integrating with methods of document reminiscent of Flatiron Well being’s EMR, BOSS strikes past information evaluation to allow real-time orchestration. This positions RISA as greater than a instrument supplier—it turns into a platform for AI-native establishments, the place clever brokers dynamically collaborate with human groups.
Founders with Area Depth
RISA Labs was based by IIT Kanpur alumni and longtime collaborators Kshitij Jaggi and Kumar Shivang, who beforehand scaled the healthcare startup City Well being. Their firsthand expertise with sluggish, error-prone healthcare workflows motivated them to rethink your complete system from the bottom up. Their early analysis into digital twins and operational modeling—culminating within the co-authored whitepaper “Digital Twin Ecosystem in Oncology Medical Operations”—laid the muse for what would change into BOSS.
Now, their work is resonating with prime traders and medical leaders alike. Binny Bansal, the lead investor, framed it as a part of a a lot bigger development: “As AI brokers unbundle the $4.6 trillion providers trade, RISA’s BOSS leads the way in which—confirmed in oncology and constructed to scale.”
What’s Subsequent
With recent funding in hand, RISA goals to deploy BOSS in 100 extra most cancers facilities over the subsequent two years. However the firm’s ambitions don’t cease at prior authorizations. Its long-term imaginative and prescient is to change into the AI transformation accomplice throughout the oncology ecosystem—from operational coordination to medical resolution help—finally constructing a unified orchestration layer for AI in healthcare.
Because the healthcare trade continues to grapple with rising prices and workforce shortages, RISA Labs stands out as an organization not simply constructing AI instruments, however reengineering how establishments operate. By letting AI brokers deal with the operational grind, RISA is giving time—and focus—again to those that want it most: the medical doctors, nurses, and workers on the frontlines of most cancers care.
