Uber Eats alum gets $14M seed from a16z to fix WhatsApp chaos for LatAm doctors

Caroline Merin, who spent nearly a decade creating the services she needed as the first Latin American general manager of Uber Eats and later COO of Rappi, realized how far behind healthcare technology was. Although patients expect doctors to respond as quickly as their service delivery apps, many medical professionals on the continent are forced to rely on WhatsApp for patient communication.

“I thought, as a patient, especially as an American, how amazing is it that I can message my doctor on WhatsApp, and he will respond,” he told TechCrunch.

But Merin also realized that this method of communication was burdensome for doctors. “A doctor who sees 20 patients during the day, when he gets home, has 100 messages and is expected to respond immediately and remember who the patient is without the health history in front of them,” he said.

Merin, who had long wanted to start his own startup, saw an opportunity to improve communication with doctors. So, two years ago, he started Leona HealthAI-copilot integrated with doctors’ WhatsApp accounts.

On Tuesday, Leona revealed that it raised $14 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with the participation of General Catalyst; Accel; Maven Clinic CEO Kate Ryder; Nubank CEO David Vélez; and Rappi CEO Simón Borrero. The startup also announced that its service is now available to doctors in 14 Latin American countries for 22 medical specialties.

With Leona, patients continue to send messages on WhatsApp, but doctors receive and manage these communications through the original mobile app. The software ranks all messages based on priority, provides feedback, and allows other team members (such as doctors or nurses) to respond to patients on behalf of the doctor.

The launch will soon introduce an autonomous assistant that will take care of the conversation and easy eating.

Solving the WhatsApp communication problem in Latin America is important because, according to Merin, patients in Latin America often choose their doctors based on their willingness to communicate using this method.

“These poor doctors, they’re getting requests for a medical consultation that says, ‘I want my children’s school report,’ or, ‘I want a copy of my meeting last week,'” Merin said.

Since these messages can arrive in the evening and on weekends, doctors are often forced to monitor their WhatsApp around the clock. Leona solves this problem by immediately alerting doctors to the most serious health requests and allowing them to ignore routine or lead questions.

“The idea is to help the doctor find time again,” Merin said. “We hear from users that they are saving two to three hours a day using Leona.”

Although Leona starts by serving Latin America, the company’s long-term mission is to expand its services to other regions, where, unlike the US, patients also want and are allowed to communicate with their doctors through WhatsApp, instead of using medical recording systems such as Epic.

Leona’s team of 13 is currently split between Mexico City and Silicon Valley, where, according to Merin, the best AI developers can be found.