The startup uses AI automation to streamline specialty therapy approvals for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s.
Mandolin, an innovative AI healthcare startup, has secured $40 million in funding to transform how patients gain access to life-saving specialty therapies. The financing round includes backing from top-tier investors like Greylock Partners, SignalFire, Maverick, SV Angel, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang, and Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel.
Co-founded in 2024 by repeat entrepreneurs Will Yin (CEO) and Rohit Rustagi (COO), Mandolin is the leading AI automation platform for specialty drug access, aiming to shorten the often weeks-long wait for treatment by automating burdensome administrative tasks with autonomous AI agents.
Its AI agents integrate with healthcare systems to execute administrative workflows—including payer communications, clinical documentation analysis, and reimbursement processing—with the intelligence and autonomy of a top-tier employee.
Addressing the Bottleneck in Specialty Drug Access
The modern era of drug development has ushered in a surge of specialty therapies for chronic and rare conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, and immune disorders.
In 2024, spending on specialty therapies reached $250 billion and is expected to balloon to $1.5 trillion within the next eight years. These treatments now represent 75% of the drugs in the FDA approval pipeline.
Unlike traditional prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies, specialty therapies often require in-clinic administration and a labyrinth of administrative steps for insurance approval. The result is a process riddled with delays, errors, and unnecessary cost—often at the expense of patients awaiting critical care.
“Insurance companies make the approval process challenging for specialty medications,” said Yin. “We saw an opportunity to build autonomous agents that can tackle these workflows for providers in minutes and more reliably.”
How Mandolin’s AI Agents Transform Drug Delivery Workflows
At the core of Mandolin’s breakthrough is its AI-powered platform that simulates the decision-making ability of a top-performing healthcare administrator.
These AI teammates automate the end-to-end process for infused and injected drug delivery, performing complex reasoning and interacting with multiple systems including:
- Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
- Insurance payer portals
- Pharmaceutical manufacturer hubs
- Faxes, handwritten notes, and clinical documents
Tasks that previously required hours or even days—such as verifying insurance coverage, submitting prior authorizations, or determining reimbursement amounts—are now handled in a fraction of the time.
“Mandolin acts as an AI employee integrated directly into our core systems,” said Cannon Loughry, COO of TwelveStone Health Partners. “We just tell it what needs to get done, and it does the work.”
Real-World Impact Across the U.S. Healthcare System
Since launching in January 2025, Mandolin has already been deployed in over 700 clinic locations and supports more than 250,000 new patients annually.
Its customers include some of the largest infusion providers and specialty pharmacies in the United States:
- Vivo Infusion
- FlexCare Infusion
- OI Infusion
- TwelveStone Health Partners
- Amber Specialty Pharmacy
These organizations report substantial improvements in operational efficiency, including faster time-to-treatment, reduced administrative headcount, improved billing accuracy, and increased visibility into patient pathways.
“Mandolin has been nothing short of transformational for our business,” added Loughry. “Tasks that used to take days now happen in under an hour.”
The Founders’ Vision: Better Outcomes for Patients, Smarter Operations for Providers
Yin and Rustagi’s personal experiences with the healthcare system—shaped by academic research into diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer—fueled their passion for solving one of its most broken aspects: the delay in accessing specialty medications.
The co-founders recognized that large language models and AI agents had finally matured to a point where they could match the complex reasoning capabilities of human employees.
With AI automation now integrated into every layer of drug access workflows, Mandolin is enabling a future where patients receive timely, life-saving treatments and healthcare providers operate with greater speed and sustainability.
“Despite being founded a year ago, Mandolin is already proving that AI agents can unlock faster treatment for patients and far better economics for providers,” said Jerry Chen, partner at Greylock.
The Future of AI in Healthcare: Mandolin Leading the Charge
Mandolin’s success underscores the growing demand for AI automation in healthcare operations, especially in high-stakes areas like specialty drug access.
By reducing reliance on manual processes, Mandolin not only helps providers scale efficiently but also ensures patients aren’t left waiting for therapies that could drastically improve—or even save—their lives.
This $40 million funding round provides Mandolin with the resources to further expand its footprint and invest in its core mission: using AI to accelerate access to specialty therapies for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s while reducing the cost and complexity of care delivery.
