Leona Health has launched what it describes as the world's first AI co-pilot for doctors, built on WhatsApp. It is rolling it out across 14 countries and 22 specialties as it works to create a healthcare operating system, starting in Latin America.
The company said it is backed by $14 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from General Catalyst, Accel, Maven Clinic founder and CEO Kate Ryder, Nubank founder and CEO David Vélez, and Rappi cofounder and CEO Simón Borrero. Leona Health said General Catalyst led the company's pre-seed financing.
Leona Health is initially targeting one of the most significant daily pain points for physicians in private practice: patient communication and administrative messaging. The company said its product integrates securely with a doctor's WhatsApp workflow, allowing patients to continue sending messages as they normally would while routing doctor-side communication to the Leona mobile app. Leona Health said the app provides automatic categorization, suggested responses, team collaboration, and administrative support that can reduce time spent on non-clinical messaging.
Leona Health said it plans to add AI conversational scheduling and fuller automation for non-clinical tasks. The company also said the system becomes more accurate and personalized over time as it learns each doctor's workflow.
The launch is aimed at a market where many physicians operate as solo entrepreneurs and often lack broad adoption of electronic health records. Leona Health cited EHR adoption of 35% in Latin America compared with 90% in the United States. And the company said doctors in Latin America often rely on WhatsApp for scheduling and patient communication, creating expectations for rapid responses while physicians are also delivering in-person care.
Leona Health said it emerged from a stealth pilot and is already active across 14 countries, positioning its Latin America-first strategy as a way to design care delivery infrastructure that can expand globally. The company also cited WhatsApp usage trends as a key distribution advantage, noting that 95% of doctors in Latin America use WhatsApp to run their practices and that 3 billion people worldwide use it monthly.
KEY QUOTES:
"In Latin America's private healthcare system, care often begins with a WhatsApp message," said Caroline Merin, cofounder and CEO of Leona Health. "The heart of healthcare is the doctor-patient relationship, but without the right tools, that humanity comes at a cost. By automating the administrative side of medicine with an AI co-pilot for doctors, Leona Health is building the future operating system for healthcare to scale what matters most: human connection."
Caroline Merin, Cofounder And CEO Of Leona Health
"Unlike in the United States, in Mexico we don't message patients through an EHR, but on our personal phone numbers," said Dr. Inés Álvarez, a Mexico City-based physician who has a panel of over 1200 patients and was an early Leona Health adopter. "I get more than 100 messages a day, often between patient visits or when I'm sitting down to dinner with my kids. Leona has been transformative, giving me back 10+ hours each week to focus on my patients, not my phone."
Dr. Inés Álvarez, Mexico City-Based Physician And Early Leona Health Adopter
"Leona Health is creating a new layer of digital infrastructure for healthcare -- one that starts where people already communicate, on WhatsApp," said Julie Yoo, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. "By leveraging ubiquitous technology and thoughtful design, Leona is showing how tech can transform access to care and re-architect the patient experience for a more connected, intelligent future."