Backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Vega Health raises $4 million to connect health systems with AI solutions through curated marketplace, proprietary integration platform, and objective monitoring to maximize value

Vega Health, a company dedicated to helping healthcare organizations realize measurable value from healthcare AI, officially launched today with seed funding from Bessemer Venture Partners. The company curates a marketplace of best-in-class healthcare AI solutions proven safe and effective in real-world settings, then partners with health systems to implement those solutions in their local environments and monitor performance objectively. Vega Health also works with leading health systems and innovators to commercialize effective AI solutions across the healthcare ecosystem.

Even as healthcare investment in AI exceeded $13 billion in 2024, the vast majority of AI initiatives struggled to scale beyond pilot programs. When solutions do scale, monitoring efforts often fail to connect model performance directly to clinical and operational outcomes. Meanwhile, validated innovations developed at leading health systems remain trapped within single organizations, unable to benefit patients across the broader healthcare ecosystem. Vega Health is dedicated to addressing these barriers, connecting health systems with AI solutions best aligned to their strategic priorities and providing unbiased monitoring of solutions’ impact.

“Healthcare deserves AI that solves real problems, demonstrates tangible value, and scales quickly,” said Vega Health co-founder and CEO Mark Sendak, MD. “During my time at Duke, I saw too many impactful AI solutions remain siloed in the sites they were created. I saw how difficult it was for health systems to adapt and implement effective solutions, even if those solutions worked elsewhere. We launched Vega Health to build the connective tissue necessary to make healthcare AI actually work, and connect health systems with the solutions that best advance their priorities. Our team has the experience to effectively integrate and monitor these solutions while driving adoption, outcomes, and value.”

Sendak previously served as the Population Health & Data Science Lead of the Duke Institute for Health Innovation (DIHI) and the co-founder of the Health AI Partnership (HAIP), a learning collaborative advancing responsible AI adoption. Sendak has more than a decade of experience implementing AI solutions at leading health systems and has published extensively on the topic. His work spans machine learning model development, clinical integration, regulatory compliance, and organizational change management, with extensive publications on connecting AI implementation to clinical outcomes and providing roadmaps for health system AI adoption.

The healthcare AI market continues to grow rapidly, but the industry lacks infrastructure connecting validated solutions with organizations that need them. Health systems face procurement complexity, incumbent vendor relationships, and difficulty assessing which AI tools will actually deliver outcomes. Simultaneously, breakthrough innovations developed at individual health systems cannot easily scale across the ecosystem.

Built on successful best practices pioneered at Duke Health, Vega Health already features more than 10 AI solutions from Duke and is actively partnering with AI innovators to expand its solution portfolio. The Vega Health team has more than two decades working directly to implement AI in healthcare settings, marrying technological expertise and practical knowledge of operational realities.

For health systems, Vega Health provides:

• A curated marketplace of AI solutions validated in real-world healthcare settings;
• Expert development and implementation support;
• Rigorous measurement of clinical outcome and operational impact; and
• Partnership in co-developing AI solutions optimized for local patient populations

For healthcare innovators, Vega Health offers:

• Commercialization pathways to scale AI solutions beyond sites of origin;
• Distribution channels to reach health systems actively seeking validated solutions;
• Implementation expertise to ensure successful deployments in new environments; and
• Transparent monitoring evaluating effectiveness in real-world settings

“Healthcare needs exactly what Vega Health provides: objective and practical AI expertise from someone who has actually made AI work in real clinical settings,” said Lance Co Ting Keh, Venture Partner at Bessemer and Vega Health co-founder. “Mark’s track record at Duke has enabled him to build deep relationships across healthcare, and his vision for Vega Health is backed by the authority to deliver results. I couldn’t be prouder to be partnering with a leader who can build the right technology, bring the right approach, and is positioned to serve an underserved market desperate for trusted guidance. It’s time to make AI actually work for health systems and their patients.”

Jared Augenstein, Senior Managing Director at Manatt Health added, "Vega Health’s approach is refreshingly pragmatic: deliver AI that improves outcomes today, not just promises results tomorrow. Vega has assembled a team that understands the intricacies of both code and clinical settings. Their partnership approach, combined with technical depth and operational experience, will deliver clinical AI that produces lasting results."

Sendak concluded, “I’ve witnessed first-hand what happens when clinical and technical experts work side-by-side to apply technology to solve healthcare’s biggest problems: you earn the trust necessary to drive meaningful change. At Vega Health, we're building the essential infrastructure necessary to realize AI's full potential for improving patient outcomes and operational efficiency, and drive meaningful AI adoption at scale in healthcare.”

About Vega Health

Located in the heart of Durham, North Carolina, Vega Health is the trusted partner for health systems working to identify, implement, monitor, and scale AI solutions aligned with their goals. Built by a group of experienced healthcare and technology operators, Vega Health helps healthcare organizations cut through the AI noise and start generating value from validated AI solutions that put patient care at the center of operations. The company’s proprietary platform, curated marketplace, and practical experience are essential infrastructure for health systems looking to generate measurable impact from healthcare AI. To learn more, visit www.vegahealth.com.

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“Healthcare deserves AI that solves real problems, demonstrates tangible value, and scales quickly...We launched Vega Health to build the connective tissue necessary to make healthcare AI actually work." - Vega Health CEO Mark Sendak, MD MPP