The archive · Health & Care · Product decision · 2025–2026
Telepatia's AI clinical copilot: $9M seed, then $33M a16z-led A for LatAm hospitals
Colombian founders bet AI copilots can fix LatAm's clinical gaps; after a $9M seed, a16z led a $33M Series A — the region's largest healthtech round.
Telepatia AI
What the business is
Telepatia AI is a Colombian healthtech, incubated at Stanford, whose AI clinical assistant listens to doctor-patient consultations in real time, drafts structured electronic health records automatically, checks for drug interactions, and offers evidence-based decision support — with physicians reviewing everything.
Starting capital：$9M seed led by A-Star in October 2025, then a $33M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz in June 2026 — $42M total in under a year
How it started
Founded in 2025 by Nicolás Abad (CEO) and Tomás Giraldo, Colombians incubated at Stanford, Telepatia was shaped by a personal loss: Abad's father, a renowned ophthalmologist in Medellín nicknamed 'Telepatía' for his extraordinary memory, died at 58 after a preventable drug interaction. Abad has said the product is the one that could have saved his father as a patient and that his father would have loved as a physician. In October 2025 the company closed a $9M seed round led by A-Star, with Canary, Abstract Ventures, Picus Capital and SV Angel participating.
What happened
Telepatia's platform transcribes consultations in real time, generates structured medical records, checks drug interactions, and provides clinical decision support and quality auditing to cut errors and claim denials. By mid-2026 it had processed over 5 million consultations across more than 25 public and private institutions in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Argentina, reaching over 14 million patients. At Brazil's Hospital Mater Dei, physicians used the tool about eight hours a day and recovered roughly 1.7 hours previously spent on documentation. In June 2026, Andreessen Horowitz led a $33M Series A — described as the largest digital-health investment in Latin America — with Nubank founder David Vélez, Rappi founder Simón Borrero and Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar among participants, bringing total funding to $42M.
How it ended up
Still scaling: as of September 2026 Telepatia says it serves 14M+ patients through 25+ institutions in five countries, plans to consolidate Chile, Mexico and Argentina in 2026, and targets reaching half of Latin America's 1.9 million doctors by the end of 2027, with India, Africa and Southeast Asia as next markets.
Background
Telepatia AI is a Colombian healthtech founded in 2025 by Nicolás Abad and Tomás Giraldo, incubated at Stanford. The company builds an AI clinical copilot that listens to doctor-patient consultations in real time, drafts structured electronic health records without the physician typing, checks for drug interactions, and offers evidence-based decision support — while keeping the doctor in charge of every clinical decision.
The founding story is personal: Abad's father, a renowned ophthalmologist in Medellín nicknamed 'Telepatía' for his extraordinary memory, died at 58 after a preventable drug interaction. Abad has said publicly that the product is the one that could have saved his father as a patient and that his father would have loved as a physician. In October 2025 the company closed a $9M seed round led by A-Star, with Canary, Abstract Ventures, Picus Capital and SV Angel participating.
The product found fast traction. By mid-2026 Telepatia had processed 5M+ consultations and served 14M+ patients through 25+ institutions across Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Argentina. At Brazil's Hospital Mater Dei, doctors used the tool about eight hours a day and recovered roughly 1.7 hours previously spent on documentation. In June 2026 a16z led a $33M Series A — the largest digital-health investment in Latin America — with Nubank founder David Vélez, Rappi founder Simón Borrero and Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar among participants, bringing total funding to $42M in under a year.
The ambition is regional and then global: consolidate in Chile, Mexico and Argentina through 2026, reach half of Latin America's 1.9 million doctors by the end of 2027, and expand into India, Africa and Southeast Asia. The bet is that a doctor shortage and heavy documentation burden make Latin America the right place to build an AI that assists — not replaces — physicians.
What has to be true
- The wedge was the exam room: transcribing visits and drafting records is a pain every clinician has, and it doesn't require changing how medicine is practiced.
- Keeping physicians in the loop (decision support, not autonomous diagnosis) removed the liability objection that stalls AI health tools in hospitals.
- Founder-market fit: Abad knew the clinical buyer's daily reality, and his father's story made the mission — preventing avoidable errors — concrete for investors.
- Institutional adoption plus a free tier for independent doctors spread usage fast: 25+ institutions and 14M+ patients within a year of founding.
What can be applied
Telepatia won adoption by removing doctors' documentation burden without taking over their decisions: selling time back to physicians made hospitals say yes and made a16z call them the winners.
Aftermath
As of September 2026, Telepatia AI is scaling across Latin America: more than 14 million patients reached through 25+ institutions in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Argentina, and over 5 million consultations processed. The $33M a16z-led Series A — with David Vélez, Simón Borrero and Shyam Sankar — brought total funding to $42M. It plans to consolidate Chile, Mexico and Argentina in 2026, reach half of LatAm's 1.9 million doctors by end of 2027, and enter India, Africa and Southeast Asia. The open question is whether that pace holds in markets with different languages and regulations.
Sources
- Telepatía AI cierra la Serie A en salud con a16z para escalar su médico de IA en la región
- Telepatia raises $33M Series A led by a16z to build an AI Doctor for Latin American hospitals
- Telepatia raises $33M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz
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