What You Should Know:
– RISA Labs, a company pioneering AI operating system for oncology, today announced the closing of an $11.1 million Series A funding round.
– The financing was co-led by Cencora Ventures and Optum Ventures, with participation from Oncology Ventures, Z21 Ventures, and John Simon (co-founder of General Catalyst).
RISA Labs Raises the Bar for AI-Driven Oncology Operations
Founded by RISA Labs co-founders Kshitij Jaggi and Kumar Shivang, RISA Labs is building what it describes as an AI operating system for mission-critical institutions. Its flagship platform, BOSS Console, is designed to orchestrate complex, high-stakes workflows end to end—starting with one of the most operationally demanding domains in healthcare: oncology.
At its core, RISA’s first deployment focuses on unifying patient access, benefits verification, and prior authorization across cancer centers, specialty pharmacies, and infusion networks. The goal is straightforward but ambitious: ensure every eligible cancer patient can start the right therapy faster, without being stalled by administrative bottlenecks.
RISA is already live at leading oncology networks and community practices across the United States. In the nine months since its first deployment, the platform has orchestrated access and authorization workflows for more than $400 million in oncology medications and infusion therapies. What were once opaque, manual processes have been converted into high-throughput, predictable workflows spanning the entire cancer service line.
The company’s latest funding will accelerate expansion across cancer centers, health systems, specialty pharmacies, and infusion networks nationwide—reshaping how oncology operations are managed from intake to infusion.
“In our vision for oncology, there are two sides to every patient’s journey,” said Kshitij Jaggi, CEO of RISA Labs. “Getting them on the right therapy faster, and deepening our understanding of the disease for the next patient through data.”
How the AI OS Works in Practice
RISA connects directly into a cancer center’s electronic medical record, payer and benefits systems, and other systems of record. From there, a coordinated team of AI agents reads, reasons, and acts across these environments—assembling required data, preparing and submitting authorizations, tracking payer responses, and advancing each case across dozens of payer rulesets and interfaces.
Crucially, the system is built to adapt. As forms, rules, or payer interfaces change, RISA’s agents adjust in real time, keeping workflows reliable without constant reprogramming. The platform is purpose-built for oncology’s realities: multi-drug regimens, disease-specific constraints, and highly variable payer requirements.
All of this is managed through BOSS Console, RISA’s command center for institutional operations. Teams can configure routing logic, documentation standards, and practice-specific rules so the system behaves like an extension of their own organization—not a generic automation layer. Every AI action is traceable, auditable, and compliance-ready, giving leadership clear visibility into what happened, why it happened, and how it aligns with clinical and regulatory expectations.
Performance data from early partner sites underscores the scale of impact:
· Approximately 80% of administrative staff time freed for higher-value work
· Denials reduced by up to 40%
· First-pass approval rates reaching 97.8%
· Authorizations filed within 24 hours, trending toward sub-2-hour turnaround from an average eight-day backlog
· More than 20 full-time equivalents redeployed to clinical and operational priorities
The net effect is not just efficiency, but capacity—allowing oncology practices to serve more patients with the same constrained workforce.
As cancer incidence rises, treatment protocols grow more complex, and oncologist supply remains limited, RISA positions its platform as a direct response to what it calls the “core mathematical problem” of modern oncology. By automating and coordinating the most resource-intensive administrative workflows, the company aims to let clinicians focus where they add the most value: clinical judgment and patient care.
Over the coming year, RISA plans to deepen its footprint in oncology by partnering with ecosystem leaders to extend AI-driven workflows across the full continuum of cancer care. Expansion into specialty pharmacy operations is next, built on the same AI OS foundation and configured through BOSS Console—signaling a broader ambition to redefine how complex care delivery systems operate in the age of AI.
