These founders are leaning into AI to help patients combat their medical bills.
Avelis Health
Founded in February 2025 by Angel Onuoha (CEO) and Ahmad Shehu (chief technology officer), Avelis Health employs AI agents to find errors, audit, and negotiate medical bills, which can help lead to direct savings as well as prevent rising premiums and less favorable coverage. Onuoha shares that its inception derived from an injury that left him with piling medical debt.
“I’ve dealt with a chronic knee injury for the past decade and had multiple surgeries on my right knee. What inspired me to start Avelis was having to fight down over $250K of inflated hospital bills as a result of these procedures,” he mentioned in an email to AFROTECH™. “If I was struggling with this system, I knew millions of other Americans were facing the same problem without the resources to fight back. The medical billing system is broken, 100 million Americans have medical debt, and 50-80% of bills have errors in them.”
According to information shared with AFROTECH™, Avelis Health has helped patients save hundreds of thousands of dollars within just a few months. In one notable case, a patient on the brink of bankruptcy was reportedly able to reduce his medical debt by $250,000 through the platform, a direct reflection that underscores the company’s broader mission to eliminate the $220 billion in medical debt that exists across the United States.
$500,000 Pre-Seed Investment
Most recently, Avelis Health secured a $500,000 pre-seed investment from Y Combinator, according to an announcement shared on LinkedIn. The funding will support the debut of Payment Integrity, which will be tailored to self-insured employers.
“With the Y Combinator funding, we launched Payment Integrity for self-insured employers. We audit 100% of claims in real time, catch billing errors before they pay, and save companies 8-10% on their annual health plan spend with zero impact to employee benefits,” Onuoha shared with AFROTECH™. “We also provide detailed analytics so employers can track where every health dollar goes. This lets us protect thousands of employees through a single partnership alongside helping patients one at a time.”
Ultimately, striving to help people afford the medical care they need, he added, “Success for us means that every time a patient goes through the healthcare system, their bill is being audited by Avelis to ensure there is no price gouging, errors, or unnecessary charges.”
