Avelis Health
AI audits medical claims for self-insured employers and health plans
Website: https://www.avelishealth.com
Cover Block
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Avelis Health |
| Tagline | AI audits medical claims for self-insured employers and health plans [Y Combinator, 2025] |
| Headquarters | New York |
| Founded | 2025 |
| Stage | Pre-Seed |
| Business Model | B2B |
| Industry | Healthtech |
| Technology | AI / Machine Learning |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding Label | Pre-seed |
| Total Disclosed | $500,000 [Yahoo Finance, Jun 2025] |
Links
- Website: https://www.avelishealth.com
- Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/avelis-health
Executive Summary
Avelis Health is a Y Combinator startup applying machine learning to audit medical claims in real time, focusing on payment integrity for self-insured employers [Y Combinator, 2025]. Founded in 2025 by Angel Onuoha and Ahmad Shehu, the company aims to review 100% of claims to detect billing, coding, and contract errors, targeting a 2-7% reduction in annual claims spend [Avelis Health, 2025]. Its approach combines automated detection with voice AI agents for medical record retrieval and overpayment recovery [Y Combinator, 2025].
The founding team brings a four-year working history, with Onuoha contributing product management experience from Google and Shehu providing technical leadership [Y Combinator, 2025] [RocketReach, 2026]. Capitalization includes a $500,000 pre-seed round led by Y Combinator in mid-2025 [Yahoo Finance, Jun 2025]. Over the next 12-18 months, the company must transition from technical development to named customer deployments and validate its savings percentage in live environments.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core company claims sourced from YC profile and company site; funding round confirmed by one financial outlet; team background details are partially corroborated but lack recent primary verification.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Value |
|---|---|
| Stage | Pre-Seed |
| Business Model | B2B |
| Industry / Vertical | Healthtech |
| Technology Type | AI / Machine Learning |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding | Pre-seed (~$500,000) |
How the Company Got Here
Avelis Health is a 2025 entity headquartered in New York [Crunchbase, 2025]. Founded by Angel Onuoha and Ahmad Shehu, the team has a working history spanning four years [Y Combinator, 2025]. The company participated in the Y Combinator Summer 2025 batch, securing a $500,000 pre-seed investment [Yahoo Finance, Jun 2025]. The team size is reported as three individuals [Y Combinator, 2025].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Founding date and YC participation are confirmed by multiple sources; team size and founder history are sourced from the company's YC profile.
Product and Technology
The core product is a claims auditing platform using machine learning to identify payment errors before disbursement. The system reviews 100% of incoming claims for billing, coding, and contract compliance [Y Combinator, 2025]. A secondary layer of voice AI agents handles medical record retrieval and recovery [Y Combinator, 2025]. The company targets self-insured employers, health plans, and third-party administrators [Avelis Health, 2025]. The Founding Engineer role requires Python, React, and AWS [Y Combinator, 2026].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product claims sourced from company and YC materials; technical stack inferred from a single job posting.
Where the Demand Sits
The market for healthcare payment integrity is driven by the need to control costs in the $1.3 trillion U.S. commercial healthcare spend [McKinsey & Company, 2023]. Erroneous payments account for 3% to 10% of total claims spend. Self-insured employer plans, which cover over 60% of workers with employer-sponsored insurance, represent the primary demand driver [KFF, 2023].
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| U.S. Commercial Healthcare Spend (2023 est.) | $1,300B |
| Typical Erroneous Payment Rate (industry benchmark) | 5% |
| Implied Addressable Overpayment Pool | $65B |
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing is inferred from third-party industry reports and benchmarks, not company-specific data. The demand driver for self-insured plans is corroborated by KFF research.
Competitive Landscape
Avelis Health competes with legacy vendors like Cotiviti and HMS, and venture-backed challengers like Alaffia Health and Anomaly. Avelis differentiates through its real-time prevention focus and full automation [Y Combinator, 2025].
| Company | Positioning | Stage / Funding | Notable Differentiator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avelis Health | AI-powered, real-time claims auditing. | Pre-seed, $500K (2025) | Focus on 100% claims review and prevention. |
| Alaffia Health | AI-driven claims integrity platform. | Seed, $5M (2024) | Combines AI with clinical expertise. |
| Anomaly | AI platform for healthcare payment integrity. | Series B, $35M (2024) | Focuses on complex FWA patterns. |
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitor data sourced from Crunchbase; Avelis's positioning from its YC profile.
Opportunity
Avelis aims to capture a portion of the estimated $100 billion in annual waste from medical billing errors [Avelis Health, 2025].
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst |
|---|---|---|
| Dominant TPA Partnership | Avelis's API is embedded as the default audit engine for a major TPA. | Successful pilot integration proving workflow efficiency. |
| Fortune 500 Direct Land | A large self-insured corporation adopts Avelis enterprise-wide. | Competitive RFP process for healthcare cost containment. |
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Opportunity sizing is inferred from company claims and a general market context; competitor funding is a single public data point.
Sources
- [Y Combinator, 2025] Avelis Health: We audit medical claims for self-insured employers and health plans. | https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/avelis-health
- [Avelis Health, 2025] Avelis Health - Audit your medical claims with AI | https://www.avelishealth.com/
- [Crunchbase, 2025] Avelis Health - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/avelis-health
- [Yahoo Finance, Jun 2025] Avelis Health, An AI-Powered Company Helping Patients Lower Their Medical Bills, Secures $500K Pre-Seed Investment From Y Combinator | https://finance.yahoo.com/news/avelis-health-ai-powered-company-173727195.html
- [RocketReach, 2026] Ahmad Shehu Profile | https://rocketreach.co/ahmad-shehu-email_1000000000000000000
- [Y Combinator, 2026] Founding Engineer - Full Stack Job Posting | https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/avelis-health/jobs/6u8JOei-founding-engineer-full-stack
- [McKinsey & Company, 2023] The future of US healthcare: What's next for the industry post-COVID-19? | https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare/our-insights/the-future-of-us-healthcare-whats-next-for-the-industry-post-covid-19
- [KFF, 2023] 2023 Employer Health Benefits Survey | https://www.kff.org/report-section/ehbs-2023-summary-of-findings/
- [Crunchbase, 2024] Alaffia Health - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/alaffia-health
- [Crunchbase, 2024] Anomaly - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/anomaly
Articles about Avelis Health
- Avelis Health's Pre-Seed Bet Audits Every Medical Claim With an AI Agent — The YC-backed startup aims to intercept billing errors before they reach the patient, targeting a 2-7% savings on annual claims spend.