For Infusion Clinics, Mandolin Is Selling an AI That Does the Paperwork

For a patient prescribed a specialty infusion for cancer or a chronic autoimmune disease, the most critical step isn't the therapy itself. It's the administrative maze that comes before it: verifying insurance benefits, securing prior authorization from the payer, scheduling the appointment, and managing the revenue cycle. This manual, error-prone process, known as the "access workflow," can delay treatment for weeks. Mandolin, a San Francisco startup founded in 2024, is betting that AI agents trained specifically on this workflow can cut those delays to days [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief].

As of June 2025, the company's software is deployed across more than 700 clinic locations, handling the intake and authorization process for over 250,000 new patients annually [Business Wire, June 2025]. In that same month, Mandolin secured $40 million in combined seed and Series A funding, a round led by Greylock with SignalFire and Maverick as seed co-leads [Business Wire, June 2025]. The traction suggests a clear, if narrow, product-market fit. For Pulse Raman, the more compelling story is not the scale of the deployment, but the specific patient population it serves and the tangible reduction in administrative burden that could translate to faster care.

A wedge in the last mile of drug delivery

Mandolin's product is not a general-purpose healthcare chatbot. It is a set of specialized AI agents designed to integrate directly with electronic health record and pharmacy management systems, automating discrete tasks within the specialty drug access workflow [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. The company's initial focus is on physician-administered specialty medicines, a high-cost category where treatment delays are both clinically significant and financially burdensome for providers.

The platform's stated mission is to help people access life-changing medications faster [Mandolin.com, retrieved 2026]. By automating intake, benefits verification, prior authorization, and revenue cycle management, the company aims to cut the manual work that currently falls to clinic staff, theoretically allowing patients to move from prescription to therapy sooner [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026]. Investors like Greylock have framed this as providing the "last mile" delivery infrastructure for cutting-edge drugs [Ashbyhq.com, retrieved 2026].

The team behind the traction

The company was co-founded by repeat entrepreneurs Will Yin (CEO) and Rohit Rustagi (COO), both named to the Forbes 2026 30 Under 30 list in Healthcare [Forbes, December 2025]. Yin, a Stanford mathematics and computer science dropout, was previously co-founder, president, and CTO of transportation tech company Jupiter and built retail marketing tech that raised $9 million from Khosla, Canaan, NFX, and Y Combinator [willyin.com, retrieved 2026] [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026]. Rustagi, a Stanford Medical School dropout and Fulbright recipient, previously co-founded Alfie Health, a venture-backed startup in obesity medicine, and Minimally Invasive Spinal Technology LLC [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026].

Their blend of technical and clinical-adjacent experience appears tailored to the problem. While neither has a long history in healthcare administration software, their recent recognition and the rapid customer adoption suggest they have identified a acute pain point. The company has named several early customers and partners, including Vivo Infusion, FlexCare Infusion, OI Infusion, TwelveStone Health Partners, and Amber Specialty Pharmacy [Business Wire, June 2025].

Co-Founder	Role	Background Highlights
Will Yin	CEO	Stanford dropout; former Co-Founder/President/CTO of Jupiter; built prior venture-backed marketing tech [willyin.com, retrieved 2026] [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026]
Rohit Rustagi	COO	Stanford Medical School dropout, Fulbright recipient; co-founded Alfie Health (obesity medicine) and MIST LLC [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026]

The competitive and regulatory landscape

Mandolin operates in a crowded segment of healthcare technology. Direct competitors include established players like CoverMyMeds (now part of McKesson) and SamaCare, as well as newer ventures like Asepha, Claimable, and Tandem. The differentiation claim rests on Mandolin's use of AI agents trained on task-level workflow data from specialty-infusion operations, positioning it as an automated "knowledge worker" rather than a rules-based forms tool [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] [Ashbyhq.com, retrieved 2026].

The company's early metrics are impressive, but they invite a cautious analysis. Scaling from 700 clinics to thousands will require navigating the intricate web of payer policies and EHR integrations that vary by region and health system. Furthermore, while automation can accelerate a process, it does not guarantee approval. The clinical and financial criteria for prior authorization are set by payers, not clinics. Mandolin's success will hinge on its agents' ability to navigate these rules accurately and adapt to their frequent changes, a significant technical and compliance challenge.

• Integration depth. The product's value is tied to its smooth connection with EHRs like Epic and Cerner, as well as pharmacy systems. Any friction in these integrations could limit utility.
• Payer rule volatility. Insurance prior authorization criteria are notoriously complex and updated regularly. Maintaining agent accuracy requires constant, reliable data feeds and robust change-management protocols.
• Market expansion. The current focus on infusion clinics is a smart wedge, but growth may require moving into adjacent workflows or patient-administered specialty drugs, each with its own operational nuances.

What the standard of care looks like today

For patients prescribed biologic therapies for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, or multiple sclerosis, the current pathway is fraught with waiting. A clinic staff member, often a nurse or financial coordinator, must manually collect patient data, call insurance companies, submit detailed clinical documentation, and then wait,sometimes for over two weeks,for a response. Denials are common, leading to appeals and further delays. This administrative burden contributes to staff burnout and can directly impact patient health outcomes when therapy initiation is postponed.

Mandolin is targeting this specific disease state and patient population: individuals who require physician-administered specialty medications for complex, often chronic conditions. The promise is to compress the timeline from script to infusion, not by changing the medicine, but by accelerating the paperwork. The $40 million war chest will be tested on whether engineering and implementation teams can scale that promise reliably across hundreds of health systems with different IT landscapes [MobiHealthNews, June 2025]. The next twelve months will likely show whether this AI agent can become a standard piece of infrastructure in the specialty pharmacy world, or if the complexity of healthcare administration proves a harder automaton problem than the founders anticipated.

Sources

1. [Business Wire, June 2025] Mandolin Raises $40M to Improve Access to Life-Saving Therapies | https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250625104094/en/Mandolin-Raises-$40M-to-Improve-Access-to-Life-Saving-Therapies-for-Diseases-like-Cancer-and-Alzheimers-Using-AI-Agents
2. [Forbes, December 2025] 30 Under 30 Healthcare 2026 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2025/12/02/30-under-30-healthcare-2026-using-ai-to-improve-care-and-cut-administrative-burdens/
3. [HLTH, June 2025] Mandolin Secures $40M to Accelerate AI Automation for Specialty Drug Access | https://hlth.com/insights/news/mandolin-secures-40m-to-accelerate-ai-automation-for-specialty-drug-access-2025-06-27
4. [MobiHealthNews, June 2025] Mandolin raises $40M for AI automation for specialty drugs | https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/mandolin-raises-40m-ai-automation-specialty-drugs
5. [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] Company and product overview
6. [Ashbyhq.com, retrieved 2026] Company description
7. [Mandolin.com, retrieved 2026] Company mission statement
8. [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Rohit Rustagi profile and company posts
9. [willyin.com, retrieved 2026] Will Yin background
10. [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026] Will Yin profile