Garner Raises $100M for AI Healthcare Quality Tool

Garner, a healthcare startup, recently secured $100 million in a late-stage funding round, boosting its valuation to $2.74 billion. The company aims to use these fresh funds to build an artificial intelligence tool designed to evaluate doctor performance against best practices. Additionally, Garner plans to expand its reach to more customers and develop a chatbot to assist patients in finding care.

Founded in 2019, Garner identifies high-quality, cost-effective doctors using data from over 320 million medical records. It then offers employers a service to cover employees' out-of-pocket costs when they choose these highly-ranked physicians. This approach incentivizes patients to select better care, ultimately driving down overall healthcare costs.

Approximately 800 employers, including Archer-Daniels-Midland and the University of Oklahoma, currently utilize Garner's services, covering 1.5 million individuals. The company projects reaching 3 million members by January. Employers adopting Garner typically experience savings of 12% on their medical expenses, contributing to a 5% to 7% increase in profitability.

Garner is also exploring new revenue streams by offering its quality ratings directly to healthcare providers for benchmarking. The company's recent funding follows a $118 million round in February, which had valued Garner at $1.35 billion. The significant increase in valuation is attributed to Garner's revenue roughly doubling since that earlier investment.