Lotus Health raises $35M for AI doctor who sees patients for free

A growing number of people are asking OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other LLMs about their health, often finding that chatbots provide incredibly useful medical information.

KJ Dhaliwal (pictured left), who in 2019 sold South Asian dating app Dil Mil for $50 million, says he’s been thinking about the inefficiencies of the American health care system since he was a child working as a medical translator for his parents, and saw the advent of LLMs as an opportunity to do something about it.

In May 2024, it launched Lotus Health AI, a free primary care provider available 24/7 in 50 languages. On Tuesday, Lotus announced that it has raised $35 million in a Series A round co-led by CRV and Kleiner Perkins, bringing its total funding to $41 million.

People already consult with AI about their health, but Lotus goes further: it goes beyond those conversations to facilitate real medical care, including diagnosis, prescriptions, and referrals to specialists.

Essentially, Lotus is building an AI doctor that works like a real doctor, licensed to practice in all 50 states, malpractice insurance, HIPAA-compliant programs, and full access to patient records.

The main difference is that most of the work is done by AI, which is trained to ask the same questions a doctor would.

Since AI models are also prone to hallucinations, the company always has board-certified human doctors from top medical institutions like Stanford, Harvard, and UCSF review final diagnoses, lab orders, and medical prescriptions.

Lotus has developed an AI model, similar to OpenEvidence, that combines the latest evidence-based research with patient history and clinical responses to generate a treatment plan.

“AI gives advice, but real doctors sign,” Dhaliwal told TechCrunch.

Lotus recognizes the limits of visual care. For medical emergencies, Lotus directs patients to the nearest urgent care center or emergency room. And if the case requires a physical exam, the platform refers the patient to an in-person doctor, Dhaliwal said.

Outsourcing such an important part of medical decision-making to AI is an ambitious bet given the regulatory hurdles in healthcare. For example, doctors are restricted from seeing patients only in states where they hold a license.

As CRV general partner Saar Gur, who led the deal and joined the company’s board, put it: “There are a lot of challenges, but it’s not SpaceX sending astronauts to the moon.”

Gur (pictured right), an early investor in DoorDash, Mercury, and Ring, is convinced that telemedicine frameworks developed during the crisis, combined with recent advances in AI, allow Lotus to navigate many of the current regulatory and engineering challenges.

“It’s a big swing,” said Gur. But for an investor like Gur, that’s a downside: Lotus is trying to rethink the entire model of primary care.

At a time when primary care doctors are in short supply, Lotus says it can see 10 times more patients than a traditional practice, even if it limits each visit to 15 minutes.

Startups aren’t the only ones building an AI doctor. Lightspeed-backed Doctronic is one of the contenders. The lotus separates itself – at least for now – by offering its entire maintenance plan completely free.

Dhaliwal said business models may eventually include sponsored or subscription content, but the current focus remains entirely on product development and attracting patients rather than revenue.