Understood Care has closed $8.4 million in funding to expand its AI-powered patient advocacy platform for Medicare patients across the United States. The round includes a $5 million seed led by Rethink Education and Zeal Capital Partners, combined with $3.4 million in pre-seed funding led by 1984 Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator.
The new capital will support the continued development of Ava, the company's AI co-pilot for human patient advocates, and deepen partnerships with healthcare providers, payers, and community organizations.
For the more than 60 million Americans over the age of 65, getting through the healthcare system often feels less like receiving care and more like doing paperwork. Expanding plan options, frequent policy changes, disconnected provider networks, and layers of administrative requirements have made managing the non-medical side of healthcare a full-time job. That population is projected to reach 80 million by 2030, and most of them have no dedicated support.
"I've seen far too many patients get lost in paperwork, blocking access to the care they deserve. This reality demands a new kind of infrastructure. Existing solutions were not built to operate at the scale, complexity, or level of personalization that today's patients need," said Sam Wu, co-founder and CEO of Understood Care.
Understood Care pairs trained human advocates with AI-powered automation to help Medicare patients schedule appointments, access benefits, complete applications, coordinate care, and clear the practical obstacles that often block people from getting help in the first place. Thanks to CMS payment pathways introduced in 2024, services are covered by existing benefits for most patients, meaning the large majority pay nothing out of pocket.
The human advocates come from backgrounds in nursing, healthcare administration, and social work. They work remotely but maintain close, ongoing relationships with each patient through video calls, phone conversations, and text. They follow up until problems are resolved.
Behind the scenes, Ava handles the administrative work that consumes time and mental energy. It initiates phone calls, waits on hold, summarizes medical records and call transcripts, drafts communications, suggests relevant resources based on outcomes for similar patients, and generates Medicare-compliant documentation for claims. Every interaction feeds a growing proprietary dataset built around the real tasks of patient advocacy. The more cases the platform handles, the smarter and faster Ava becomes.
For health plans and provider groups, Understood Care offers a compliant, scalable advocacy layer that increases patient satisfaction while reducing overall costs. When patients show up to appointments, access the right benefits, and resolve barriers around transportation, housing, or medication affordability, the downstream cost of care drops. The company has already credentialed providers nationwide and established relationships with three of the largest Medicare Advantage plans in the country.
"I've seen the urgent need for patient advocacy infrastructure first-hand as an ER physician," said Farzad Soleimani, MD, Healthcare Partner at 1984 Ventures. "Understood Care is tackling a massive, underserved market with an AI-native solution that genuinely improves people's lives during their most vulnerable moments."
Understood Care was founded by Sam Wu, a healthcare operations leader, and Kevin Bailey, a serial technology entrepreneur. The company launched patient care in March 2025 and expanded its platform across all 50 states within eight months.
Active patients reach out to their advocates an average of five times per month. Advocates proactively contact patients an average of 11 times per month. The company is on a path to support more than 10,000 new patients in 2026.
The platform operates through CMS-recognized advocacy codes, making it one of the first AI-native services to be embedded directly into the existing Medicare billing infrastructure. The proprietary dataset it is building, spanning calls, transcripts, documents, workflows, resource recommendations, and outcomes, is structured around real patient needs. That dataset becomes a lasting competitive advantage as the platform scales.
The $8.4 million total includes a $3.4 million pre-seed led by 1984 Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, followed by a $5 million seed round led by Rethink Education and Zeal Capital Partners.
"Understood Care is setting a new standard for what scalable, AI-enabled advocacy can achieve in healthcare," said Bridget Duru, Vice President at Rethink Education. "The founding team combines deep healthcare operations expertise with world-class engineering talent to create the AI and data infrastructure that will make patient advocacy as ubiquitous as telehealth, while maintaining the human connection that patients need most."
"Navigating today's healthcare system is one of the most critical and overlooked challenges facing older adults and their caregivers," said Emily Zhen, Principal at Zeal Capital Partners. "We believe this team is uniquely positioned to transform how aging populations access and experience care."
