RISA Labs raises USD $3.5m to automate cancer workflows

RISA Labs has raised USD $3.5 million to deploy its AI-powered workflow platform for oncology to reduce delays in cancer patient treatment.

The latest funding round, led by Binny Bansal with participation from Oncology Ventures, General Catalyst, z21 Ventures, ODD BIRD VC, and Ashish Gupta, aims to expand RISA Labs' technology to 100 cancer centres within two years. The investment will accelerate the adoption of workflow automation in oncology, targeting persistent delays caused by manual administration in prior authorisations for treatment.

Ben Freeberg, Managing Partner at Oncology Ventures, highlighted the significance of the problem of administrative delays in oncology. "Prior authorizations remain one of the least automated parts of our healthcare system," he said. "In oncology, the stakes are higher. 70% of cancer patients experience delays in care because of prior authorization requirements. In 33% of those cases, the delay is one month—a time window that can increase the risk of death by 13% in certain cancer types. The current system isn't just inefficient – it's dangerous."

RISA Labs' platform, known as the Business Operating System as a Service (BOSS), automates and coordinates healthcare workflows by breaking down complex processes into smaller, manageable tasks and assigning them to intelligent agents. Unlike traditional automation tools or digital assistants, BOSS is described as a full-stack orchestration engine specifically designed for the intricacies of healthcare. It integrates a range of artificial intelligence systems, such as large language models, digital twins, and reinforcement learning agents, with existing medical software infrastructure.

Kshitij Jaggi, Co-founder and CEO of RISA Labs, commented on the need for a new approach to digital operations in healthcare. He explained, "We've had Windows, we've had Linux, we've had Mac, each OS helped humans extract more from machines. But now, we're drowning in software. There's too much of it, and a shortage of skilled labor to operate it. Software that was supposed to get work done has become work itself. BOSS is an AI OS designed for the post-ChatGPT era : where work is no longer about learning tools, but simply expressing intent."

At one leading US cancer centre, implementation of the BOSS platform reportedly reduced prior authorisation processing times from 30 minutes to under five minutes. Within a few months of deployment, the system processed over USD $1 million in medication orders, released 80 percent of staff time from administrative work, and reduced administrative costs by 66 percent.

Dr. Jeffrey Vacirca, CEO of New York Cancer and Blood Specialists, described the impact of the technology on frontline cancer care. "Cancer care is time sensitive. Every delay in treatment can affect outcomes. Prior authorizations continue to slow us down. What RISA is building is not just smart technology. It removes barriers so our teams can move faster and stay focused on what matters most: caring for patients," he said.

RISA Labs was founded in Silicon Valley by IIT Kanpur alumni and repeat entrepreneurs Kshitij Jaggi and Kumar Shivang, who previously cofounded Urban Health. Their experience with slow, fragmented healthcare workstreams led them to develop an AI operating system for institutional workflows, focusing initially on the oncology sector.

Kumar Shivang, Co-founder and CTO of RISA Labs, outlined the technical design of the platform: "BOSS is low-entropy system design to bring flow state in system-2 thinking for LLMs; it aims to maximise AI agents' usefulness for critical problems like oncology operations. Its orchestration layer then turns that intelligence into precise, real-time execution with integrations with systems of record like Flatiron Health's EMR."

The RISA Labs founding team incorporated their research experience into the design of BOSS, including work on the paper 'Digital Twin Ecosystem in Oncology Clinical Operations', which contributed to establishing a blueprint for AI-led process improvement in clinical settings.

Lead investor Binny Bansal commented on the broader implications for AI in healthcare services: "As AI agents unbundle the USD $4.6 trillion services industry, RISA's BOSS leads the way—proven in oncology and built to scale."

RISA Labs intends to further roll out its technology across the oncology sector, aiming to become an AI transformation partner for both operational and clinical workflows. The company plans to support coordination and intelligence across providers, life sciences organisations, and stakeholders throughout the continuum of drug delivery and patient care in oncology.