Silicon Valley-based healthtech startup Risa Labs, founded by IIT Kanpur alumni Kshitij Jaggi and Kumar Shivang, has raised INR 29.9 crore (USD 3.5 million) in a seed funding round to tackle one of the most persistent and dangerous inefficiencies in cancer care: prior authorization delays.
The funding round was led by Binny Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart, with strong backing from Oncology Ventures, General Catalyst, z21 Ventures, ODD BIRD VC, and seasoned angel investor Ashish Gupta. The capital will be deployed over the next two years to scale Risa Labs’ flagship platform, BOSS (Business Operating System as a Service), across 100 cancer centres in the United States.
Solving a Deadly Bottleneck in Cancer Treatment
In the world of oncology, time equals survival. Delays in treatment—often caused by prior authorization requirements from insurance providers—affect nearly 70% of cancer patients. For a third of them, these delays last up to a month, a window that increases the risk of death by up to 13% in certain cancers.
“The current system isn’t just inefficient – it’s dangerous,” said Ben Freeberg, Managing Partner at Oncology Ventures. “Prior authorizations remain one of the least automated aspects of healthcare.”
Risa Labs was founded in 2024, emerging from the founders’ frustration with slow, fragmented healthcare workflows experienced during their earlier venture, Urban Health. Their new approach? A full-stack AI platform that embeds intelligence deep within healthcare operations, rather than layering automation on top of outdated systems.
About Risa Labs
Founded in 2024 by Kshitij Jaggi and Kumar Shivang, Risa Labs is a Palo Alto-based oncology AI company. Its core offering, BOSS, uses AI agents, digital twins, and LLMs to break down complex healthcare workflows into micro-tasks, dramatically reducing inefficiencies and delays in cancer care.
Enter BOSS – An Operating System for Healthcare Institutions
Unlike traditional workflow automation tools or superficial AI assistants, BOSS is described as an AI-native orchestration engine tailored for the complexity of healthcare systems. It decomposes intricate administrative processes into micro-tasks, which are then executed by a network of intelligent agents—including large language models (LLMs), digital twins, and reinforcement learning agents.
BOSS aims to function like an AI operating system for healthcare—transforming an institution’s productivity. According to Risa, the platform can help a 1,000-person organization operate like a 2,000-person one overnight, thanks to its virtual, AI-driven workforce.
“We’ve had Windows, Linux, Mac—each helping humans get more from machines. Now we’re drowning in software. BOSS is built for the post-ChatGPT era—where work is no longer about learning tools, but simply expressing intent,” said Kshitij Jaggi, Co-founder & CEO of Risa Labs.
Proven Results and Future Vision
In one major U.S. cancer centre where BOSS has already been deployed, the platform cut prior authorization times from 30 minutes to under five, processed over INR 8.5 crore (USD 1 million) in medications, and freed up 80% of administrative staff time. This resulted in a 66% reduction in administrative costs, showcasing its immediate value and scalability.
Dr. Jeffrey Vacirca, CEO of New York Cancer and Blood Specialists, emphasized the clinical value: “What Risa is building isn’t just smart technology—it’s a removal of operational barriers that slow us down. It allows us to focus on what matters most: caring for patients.”
Beyond prior authorizations, Risa envisions BOSS as the AI orchestration layer for the entire cancer care ecosystem—integrating with EMRs like Flatiron Health, supporting life sciences organizations, providers, and care coordination platforms throughout the drug development and treatment lifecycle.
Research Roots and Industry Impact
The conceptual roots of BOSS stem from the founders’ academic work, notably their paper, “Digital Twin Ecosystem in Oncology Clinical Operations”, which laid the groundwork for a scalable, agent-based approach to healthcare automation.
Kumar Shivang, Co-founder & CTO, describes BOSS as “a low-entropy system design to bring flow state into System-2 thinking for LLMs, allowing real-time orchestration and execution of institutional processes.”
Investor Binny Bansal added, “As AI agents begin to unbundle the USD 4.6 trillion services industry, Risa’s BOSS stands out—not just as a tech solution, but as a real-world clinical game-changer, proven in oncology and built to scale.”
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What’s Next?
With this fresh infusion of capital, Risa Labs is set to aggressively expand across oncology infrastructure in the U.S., with an eye on becoming the default AI partner for clinical and operational excellence in cancer care.
The combination of mission-critical impact, scalable AI infrastructure, and a razor-sharp founding team positions Risa Labs as a startup to watch closely—not only in healthtech, but as a pioneer in enterprise AI transformation across high-stakes industries.