Cedar
Unicorn Β· $3.2BFounded 2016 Β· 7 known investors
Cedar provides a unified patient financial platform for healthcare providers, combining billing, payments, coverage, and support powered by healthcare-specific AI. The platform serves health systems, physician groups, and clinician service agencies to increase patient payments, expand coverage identification, and automate support interactions.
Also known as Cedar Cares, Inc.
Founders & leadership
Cedar was founded in 2016 by Florian Otto and Arel Lidow.
Investors Β· 7
Valuation Β· disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed β follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Cedar sells software to US healthcare providers that manages the patient-facing financial side of care, unifying billing, payments, coverage and support in one platform. Its offering is organized into three product lines: Cedar Pay (pre-visit payments, post-visit billing and communications, payment and financing options), Cedar Cover (Medicaid and ACA enrollment, Medicaid coverage maintenance, denials resolution) and Cedar Support (call center servicing, early-out services, smart outbound call lists, advanced bill summaries, and Kora, an AI voice agent).
The company markets an internal capability it calls Cedar Intelligence β healthcare financial data combined with learning models β as the layer that personalizes patient interactions, optimizes the payment funnel and unifies digital and voice channels. Historically Cedar was best known for Cedar Pay, a patient billing product; as of 2021 it described plans to move beyond post-visit billing into pre-visit tools such as appointment reminders, digital registration forms and insurance-card capture, actionable price transparency, and deeper electronic health record integrations.
Cedar was launched in 2016 to modernize the medical billing process. Co-founder and CEO Florian Otto, a physician by training and a former Zocdoc executive, has framed the company's premise as the gap between the patient financial experience and consumer digital expectations set by other industries.
Founding story
Cedar was launched in 2016 to modernize medical billing. Co-founder Florian Otto, MD, PhD, a former physician and Zocdoc executive, said his own frustrating experiences with healthcare's billing system motivated him to help start the company, arguing the patient financial experience remained 'stuck in the 1980s.'
Business model
B2B software and services sold to healthcare providers, who deploy Cedar's platform to engage their patients on billing, payments, coverage enrollment and support. Cedar describes its client relationships as partnerships with aligned incentives rather than standard vendor arrangements, and positions itself as a consolidator of fragmented patient-financial tools and vendors.
Not disclosed in the available sources beyond the fact that Cedar is paid by healthcare providers for its platform and services.
Traction
As of March 2021 Cedar reported partnerships with more than 35 US healthcare providers, engagement with over 300,000 patients per day, a typical 30% lift in patient payments for providers, an 88% patient satisfaction score, and a quadrupling of business during 2020. Company website figures cite 1.3 billion patient payment interactions, more than 58 million patients served (elsewhere stated as 50 million nationwide) and $13.6 billion in patient payments processed.
Latest developments
The company's current website centers on Cedar Intelligence and the three-product structure of Cedar Pay, Cedar Cover and Cedar Support, including Kora, an AI voice agent for patient servicing.
βΈFull profile β market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Cedar operates in patient financial engagement and healthcare revenue cycle. In 2021 an investor described it as a market-leading technology platform for helping patients resolve medical bills, while the CEO said the company had penetrated roughly 1% of the market, with 99% of patient visits occurring outside Cedar. Company-cited tailwinds included pandemic-driven digital adoption and CMS price transparency rules requiring hospitals to post payer-negotiated rates for shoppable services.
Cedar frames its differentiators as a complete platform that consolidates fragmented patient-financial tools and vendors, an accountable partnership model with aligned incentives, and data-driven optimization in which the platform learns from each interaction. It contrasts Cedar Intelligence with general-purpose AI by emphasizing domain specificity in billing, coverage, payments and affordability.
Technology
Cedar Intelligence, the company's stated technology foundation, combines healthcare financial data with what the company calls advanced learning models to personalize patient interactions across channels; Cedar states it is built specifically for patient financial engagement (billing, coverage, payments, affordability) rather than being general-purpose AI. Productized elements include Kora, an AI voice agent for automated patient support, automated bill summaries, and outbound call list generation. The platform also integrates with provider systems; in 2021 the company said improving electronic health record integrations was a priority, and it partnered with Waystar for price estimates and eligibility verification.
Go-to-market
Direct enterprise sales to providers, with a demo-request motion on the company website and published customer stories and executive testimonials used as references. Following its 2021 Series D, Cedar said it would use capital to fund go-to-market and increase the number of health system partnerships.
US healthcare providers, specifically health systems, physician groups and clinician service agencies. Named clients and reference customers include Allina Health, Allegheny Health Network, Novant Health, LCMC Health, ApolloMD, US Anesthesia Partners (USAP), NAPA, Talkiatry, Advanced Dermatology & Cosmetic Surgery, Unio Health Partners and Tend. As of 2021 the company also cited Yale New Haven Health, Summit CityMD and ChristianaCare among its partners.
Geography
United States; the company describes patients served nationwide and provider partners across the US.
History
Founded in 2016 around patient billing, Cedar raised a $102 million Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz in June 2020, announced alongside a Novant Health partnership, and a $200 million Series D led by Tiger Global Management in March 2021 at a $3.2 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $350 million. In 2020 it partnered with Waystar to add price estimates and eligibility verification to a new pre-visit offering. The company has since expanded from billing into coverage and financial aid enrollment (Cedar Cover) and automated patient support (Cedar Support), including the Kora AI voice agent.
Risks & controversies
No controversies are described in the available sources. Sources note market context risks including limited market penetration as of 2021 and the company's view that CMS price transparency rules had not yet translated into usable products for patients or providers.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Founder mafia
4 people who came through Cedar went on to found or lead other companies.
Competitors Β· 1
by search overlapCompanies competing with Cedar for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Timeline Β· 4
launches, deals, and filingsCedar announced a $200 million Series D led by Tiger Global Management, valuing the company at $3.2 billion, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital and Concord Health Partners. Proceeds were earmarked for go-to-market expansion, health system partnerships, broadening the product roadmap beyond financial engagement, and EHR integrations.
$200M source β
A $102 million Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz, announced alongside a partnership with Novant Health.
$102M source β
Novant Health announced it would pilot Cedar's pre-visit technology, including appointment reminders, digital registration forms and insurance information capture via photo of the insurance card.
Cedar partnered with Waystar to add pricing estimates, payment options and eligibility verification to its pre-visit offering, enabling providers to send patients personalized price estimates through Cedar's platform.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
Cambridge Awarded $1.15 Million for Cedar St. - 47abcwmdt.com Β· Jul 2026βΈResearch sources Β· 8
primary sources listed
- Cedarcedar.com Β· web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Cedar do?
- Cedar is a healthcare technology company offering a unified patient financial platform covering billing, payments, coverage and support.
- Who founded Cedar?
- Cedar was founded by Florian Otto, Arel Lidow in 2016.
- Who are Cedar's investors?
- Cedar's investors include Alkeon Innovation, Andreessen Horowitz, Kinnevik, Oak HC/FT, Optum Ventures, SV Angel, Valkyrie Ventures Management, Llc.