2024 is a year of scaling for Albuquerque's Karoo Health. A new, artificial intelligence-driven platform the startup recently launched could be a big part of helping the company hit its growth goals throughout the rest of the year, its CEO said.
Karoo Health, a 2024 Startup to Watch, rolled out the AI-driven platform on April 18. Called "Kohere.ai," the proprietary, cloud-based platform has several components, the startup's CEO Ian Koons told New Mexico Inno.
One component is called "Flow," which is designed to boost workflow through automation and remote collection of patient data. Another is "Insights," which uses AI and machine learning-based modeling to help cardiology care physicians and payer partners better understand patients; a third called "Data Kore" integrates and sources different types of cardiac care data in a data warehousing software.
Kohere.ai, the new software platform, is intended to "augment" Karoo's model of care, according to an April 18 news release from the startup. The release notes that "risk stratification" is one example of how the new platform uses AI — analyzing "vast" amounts of patient data to "identify patterns and predictors of cardiac health risks."
"Instead of building software and then trying to retrofit a care model around it, our initial goal was to perfect a value-based Model of Care that truly delivers results, and then build cutting-edge technology to amplify its strengths," Koons said in a statement.
He told New Mexico Inno that Karoo had to decide whether to build Kohere.ai in-house or outsource the platform's development using other third-party technologies. The startup went with the former.
"What we found is, 'Hey, we have a world-class CTO and engineering team,'" Koons said. "Now that we know exactly how our model of care works and the efficacies there and the engagement, how do we build the technology around that that matches that model of care."
That model combines on-site and virtual care teams in partnership with cardiology networks, health plans and health systems to add what's called "value-based care" to the world of cardiological health. The startup employs health coaches and nutritionists, too, who help patients with their cardiovascular care.
Koons said Karoo expects to have more than 5,000 patients managed by its system and extend its services to several more states by the end of the quarter. The startup currently operates in three states, he said.
Money to build out and operate Kohere.ai comes from previous investment rounds, including a $3.4 million seed round announced in June 2023. The startup hopes to raise a larger Series A round in mid-2024, as well.
One of the primary goals of launching and expanding Kohere.ai is to treat Karoo's patients faster and more accurately, Koons said. That efficiency boost, in turn, can help Karoo more rapidly grow its patient base.
Koons also sees Kohere.ai evolving, adding additions like new "modules" as the startup continues scaling. Artificial intelligence will be a part of those evolutions, he added.
"But we're not building AI for AI's sake," Koons said. "We're having specific use-cases in which we can leverage AI to accelerate our model of care and the value that we deliver to our patients and our partners."
