Caroline Merin, with almost ten years of experience in on-demand services, including her roles as the inaugural Latin American General Manager for Uber Eats and then COO of Rappi, observed a significant technological disparity in healthcare. She noted that while patients anticipated rapid responses from doctors, similar to their experience with delivery apps, most healthcare providers in the region were limited to using WhatsApp for all patient interactions.
“As a patient, particularly as an American, I found it remarkable to be able to text my doctor via WhatsApp and receive a reply,” she shared with TechCrunch.
However, Merin also recognized the immense burden this communication style placed on physicians. She explained, “A doctor attending to 20 patients daily returns home to find 100 messages, all demanding immediate answers, and must recall each patient without access to their health records.”
Merin, who had a longstanding ambition to found her own company, identified a chance to alleviate the communication difficulties faced by doctors. Consequently, two years prior, she established Leona Health, an AI-powered co-pilot designed to integrate with doctors’ WhatsApp accounts.
Leona announced on Tuesday that it secured $14 million in seed funding, spearheaded by Andreessen Horowitz, with additional investments from General Catalyst, Accel, and the chief executives of Maven Clinic (Kate Ryder), Nubank (David Vélez), and Rappi (Simón Borrero). The company further disclosed that its platform is currently accessible to medical professionals in 14 Latin American nations, covering 22 different medical fields.
Leona enables patients to continue using WhatsApp for messaging, while doctors handle and organize these communications via the startup’s dedicated mobile application. This app prioritizes messages, proposes replies, and permits other healthcare staff (such as fellow doctors or nurses) to respond to patients on behalf of the primary physician.
Soon, the startup plans to introduce a completely autonomous agent capable of managing conversational scheduling and basic patient intake processes.
Addressing the WhatsApp communication challenge in Latin America is crucial, as Merin highlights that patients in the region frequently select doctors based on their readiness to engage through this particular platform.
Merin noted, “These physicians are inundated with requests ranging from critical medical consultations to mundane tasks like needing a school letter for their children or a receipt from a previous appointment.”
As messages can arrive during evenings and weekends, doctors frequently find themselves obliged to monitor their WhatsApp constantly. Leona addresses this issue by instantly notifying doctors only of urgent health inquiries, enabling them to de-prioritize less critical or administrative questions.
“The primary objective is to help doctors reclaim their time,” Merin stated, adding, “Our users report saving two to three hours daily by utilizing Leona.”
Although Leona’s initial focus is Latin America, the company’s long-range goal is to extend its offerings to other regions where patients, contrary to those in the US, prefer to communicate with their doctors via WhatsApp instead of through electronic medical record systems such as Epic.
Leona’s 13-member team is presently divided between Mexico City and Silicon Valley, the latter being where Merin believes the top AI engineers reside.