Tivara, an AI agents startup focused on healthcare administration, has secured $3.6 million in seed funding to tackle the inefficiencies plaguing medical practices. The company was cofounded by Tej Seelamsetty and Aumesh Misra after Seelamsetty’s frustrating personal experience with the healthcare system—waiting over an hour on the phone to book an orthopedist appointment and two weeks for insurance approval for an MRI after dislocating his shoulder in 2024.
The startup deploys AI agents to handle patient phone calls, appointment scheduling, prescription refills, and other administrative tasks that consume significant time for both patients and medical staff. Tivara’s seed round was backed by prominent investors including Mischief VC (led by Plaid CEO Zach Perret), Day One Ventures, Y Combinator, and several healthcare industry angel investors.
Before launching Tivara, the 29-year-old Seelamsetty served as head of growth for Fair Square, a technology-enabled Medicare brokerage, where he witnessed extensive back-and-forth between beneficiaries and insurance carriers. “There’s just a ton of paper-pushing,” he explained. Seelamsetty and Misra, who met while studying computer science at Washington University in St. Louis, conducted extensive research by calling “every single doctor we knew” and shadowing their practices to understand pain points.
Tivara targets large specialty medical groups with 20 to 500 doctors, and has already secured customers including the Los Angeles Cancer Network and Astera Customer Care. The company positions itself distinctly in the crowded AI-assisted patient messaging space by focusing exclusively on administrative tasks rather than clinical functions, leaving medical decision-making to doctors.
The competitive landscape includes numerous AI healthcare startups, and doctors face the challenge of identifying which solutions genuinely improve productivity versus those that add complexity. Tivara now employs five full-time staff and plans to use the funding to expand its team. Notably, the $3.6 million raised exceeded Seelamsetty’s initial target, as the founders wanted to accommodate more strategic investors who could provide industry expertise alongside capital.
Key Quotes
I saw a ton of back-and-forth between beneficiaries and insurance carriers. There’s just a ton of paper-pushing.
Tej Seelamsetty, Tivara cofounder, describing his observations from his previous role at Fair Square Medicare brokerage. This insight into healthcare’s administrative burden directly informed Tivara’s focus on automating paperwork and coordination tasks.
every single doctor we knew
Seelamsetty describing the research approach he and cofounder Aumesh Misra took before launching Tivara. They shadowed medical practices extensively to understand real-world pain points, demonstrating a customer-centric approach to product development.
Our Take
Tivara’s emergence highlights a crucial distinction in healthcare AI: administrative versus clinical applications. By deliberately avoiding clinical decision-making, Tivara sidesteps regulatory hurdles and liability concerns while addressing genuine inefficiencies. This strategic positioning could prove more sustainable than AI tools attempting to augment medical diagnosis or treatment recommendations.
The personal origin story—Seelamsetty’s frustrating patient experience—underscores how healthcare’s administrative dysfunction affects everyone. The real test will be whether AI agents can navigate the complex, often illogical workflows of insurance approvals and medical scheduling without creating new problems. The $3.6 million seed round suggests investors believe the technology has matured sufficiently, but healthcare’s resistance to change and fragmented systems present significant implementation challenges. Success here could establish a template for AI automation in other heavily regulated, administrative-heavy industries.
Why This Matters
Tivara’s funding represents the growing intersection of AI technology and healthcare administration, addressing a critical pain point in the medical system. Healthcare administrative burden costs the U.S. healthcare system billions annually and contributes to physician burnout, with doctors spending nearly two hours on administrative tasks for every hour of patient care.
The success of AI agents in healthcare could fundamentally reshape how medical practices operate, freeing up staff to focus on patient care rather than paperwork. This trend aligns with broader AI adoption across industries, but healthcare presents unique challenges around accuracy, compliance, and patient safety that make the administrative focus particularly strategic.
For the AI industry, healthcare represents a massive market opportunity with clear ROI potential—reducing staffing costs while improving patient experience. However, the proliferation of AI healthcare startups also highlights a challenge: doctors must navigate numerous solutions to find genuinely effective tools. Tivara’s approach of staying strictly administrative rather than clinical may prove wise, avoiding regulatory complexities while addressing immediate operational needs. The backing from Y Combinator and healthcare-focused investors signals confidence that AI automation in medical administration has reached a viable inflection point.