Former Uber Eats Executive Raises $14M to Modernize WhatsApp Communication for Latin American Doctors
Caroline Merin, who spent nearly a decade shaping on-demand services as the first Latin American general manager for Uber Eats and later as COO of Rappi, has turned her attention to healthcare technology—a sector she found significantly behind other industries. While patients increasingly expect instant responses from their doctors, comparable to delivery apps, many medical professionals across Latin America are still relying on WhatsApp for all patient communication.
“I thought, as a patient, especially as an American, how incredible that I can text my doctor on WhatsApp, and they’ll respond,” Merin told TechCrunch.
However, she also saw the burden this created for physicians. “A doctor who sees 20 patients during the day, gets home, has 100 messages and is expected to answer immediately and remember who the patient is without the health record in front of them,” she explained.
Launching Leona Health: AI to Assist Doctors
Two years ago, Merin founded Leona Health, an AI-powered assistant that integrates with doctors’ WhatsApp accounts to streamline patient communication. The startup’s solution allows doctors to manage messages through a dedicated mobile app rather than directly in WhatsApp, prioritizing urgent requests, suggesting responses, and enabling other team members, such as nurses, to reply on the doctor’s behalf.
On Tuesday, Leona announced it had secured $14 million in seed funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from General Catalyst, Accel, Maven Clinic CEO Kate Ryder, Nubank CEO David Vélez, and Rappi CEO Simón Borrero. The service is now available to doctors in 14 Latin American countries across 22 medical specialties.
The startup is also preparing to launch a fully autonomous agent capable of handling scheduling and basic patient intake, further easing the communication load for medical staff.
Tackling the WhatsApp Overload
In Latin America, patients often select doctors based on their willingness to communicate via WhatsApp, making this channel crucial for healthcare providers. “These poor doctors, they’re receiving requests for very serious medical consults to, ‘I need a letter for my kids’ school,’ or, ‘I want a receipt for my appointment last week,’” Merin said.
Because messages can arrive at all hours, physicians often feel compelled to monitor WhatsApp constantly. Leona Health mitigates this by alerting doctors only to the most urgent medical inquiries while allowing routine or administrative questions to be deprioritized.
“The idea is to help the doctor regain time,” Merin said. “We’re hearing from our users that they’re saving two to three hours a day by using Leona.”
Looking Ahead: Regional and Global Expansion
While Leona initially focuses on Latin America, Merin envisions expanding to other regions where patients are allowed and expected to communicate with doctors through messaging apps rather than traditional electronic medical record systems like Epic in the U.S.
Currently, Leona’s team of 13 operates between Mexico City and Silicon Valley, tapping into some of the best AI engineering talent in the world.
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