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Anterior<\/a>, a company that uses AI to expedite health insurance approval for medical procedures, has raised a $20 million Series A round at a $95 million post-money valuation led by NEA, according to two people familiar with the deal. Existing investors Sequoia, which led Anterior\u2019s $3.2 million seed round last September<\/a>, and Neo<\/a>, an accelerator that helped the company launch in the summer of 2022, also participated in the Series A financing.<\/p>\n The round also included a host of angel investors, including Mustafa Suleyman, a DeepMind and Inflection AI co-founder who was hired by Microsoft in March to lead the tech giant\u2019s consumer AI division<\/a>.<\/p>\n NEA and Anterior didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Anterior, formerly known as Co:helm, was co-founded by Abdel Mahmoud, a former doctor who left medicine to pursue a master\u2019s degree in computer science and a career in tech after he grew frustrated with the amount of time he spent on administrative functions rather than with patience.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The company has built an LLM-powered co-pilot that helps nurses and doctors save hours on gathering medical documentation required by insurance. Anterior\u2019s solution aims to reduce denial rates and accelerate patient access to care.<\/p>\n While Anterior\u2019s initial offering is in prior authorization automation, the company eventually plans to expand into other medical administrative functions.<\/p>\n Mohamad Makhzoumi, managing general partner on NEA\u2019s healthcare team and co-CEO of the firm, joined Anterior\u2019s board.\u00a0Makhzoumi\u2019s investments include Tempus, a genomic testing and data analysis company founded by Groupon founder Eric Lefkofsky<\/a>, which is planning to IPO next week at a valuation of up to $6.1 billion<\/a>. Makhzoimi also backed Xaira, an AI drug discovery startup that launched this year with $1 billion in funding<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anterior competes with Cohere Health, another provider of prior authorization automation, which raised a $50 million round in February led by Deerfield Management<\/a>, with participation from Define Ventures<\/a>, Flare Capital Partners<\/a>, Longitude Capital<\/a> and Polaris Partners<\/a>, bringing the five-year-old company\u2019s total funding to $106 million.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n