Charta Health Secures $8.1 Million After Turning Cold Emails Into Profit in Just 60 Days

When Justin Liu and Scott Morris walked away from their roles at Rockset, an AI infrastructure startup acquired by OpenAI in June 2023, they had no prior experience in healthcare. But they had an idea, one that was shaped by a year of rigorous research, obtaining medical coding credentials, and interviewing over 100 healthcare professionals. That idea became Charta Health, an AI-powered platform aimed at automating patient chart reviews, and it has already turned heads with an $8.1 million seed round led by Bain Capital Ventures.

Liu and Morris didn’t enter healthcare lightly. They understood that healthcare technology is often constrained by bureaucratic inefficiencies, outdated infrastructure, and deep-rooted resistance to change. But they also saw an opportunity. Manual chart reviews, a tedious yet essential process in patient care and billing, were ripe for automation.

From Cold Emails to Profitability in Record Time

Charta Health’s inception was anything but traditional. The company’s first major success came not from networking with venture capitalists or industry veterans but from cold outreach. Within just 60 days of sending emails to potential clients, Charta secured $500,000 in revenue. This traction was so rapid that it pushed the startup into profitability before it even launched from stealth in June 2024.

“We didn’t realize just how big of an opportunity this was going to be,” Liu admitted.

That early success forced the co-founders to rethink their trajectory. Instead of sustaining early profits, they decided to accelerate growth by securing venture funding. Charta’s $8.1 million seed round, with contributions from SV Angel, South Park Commons, SpringRock Ventures, Refract Ventures, and strategic angel investors, has set the stage for aggressive expansion.

Fixing an Outdated Process with AI

The inefficiencies in healthcare billing are widely acknowledged, but few solutions have made a real impact. Patient chart reviews are crucial for ensuring accurate billing and preventing claim denials, yet fewer than 1% of charts are reviewed before billing. This results in lost revenue, unnecessary denials, and compliance risks. Charta Health is addressing this gap with AI-powered automation.

Healthcare executives and investors have been increasingly interested in AI solutions to streamline administrative processes, particularly as staffing shortages and tight hospital margins put added strain on the industry. Several companies have emerged to tackle these inefficiencies CodaMetrix, for instance, raised $40 million in March to analyze clinical notes and derive medical codes. But Charta Health’s approach is broader.

Liu explained that the startup differentiates itself by providing a platform that adapts to multiple use cases. “Ultimately, the vision here is that we will create this layer that allows you to perform these chart reviews for any kind of use case at any point inside the revenue or care cycle,” he said.

Scrappy Execution Meets Technical Expertise

Unlike many AI startups that enter healthcare with a detached, theoretical approach, Liu and Morris embedded themselves in the field. Both obtained Certified Professional Coder credentials, giving them an insider’s perspective on medical coding challenges. This hands-on approach resonated with early customers.

One primary care group described their experience: “During our first meeting, we shared our struggle with chart review and audit. By the second meeting, Justin and Scott had already become certified medical coders and built a prototype something I didn’t know was possible in six days.”

The startup is already working with clients such as Eventus WholeHealth and KidsCare Home Health, with most deals stemming from their cold outreach efforts.

Charta Health’s core advantage is its ability to work within existing healthcare infrastructure rather than attempting to replace it. Traditional software solutions often fail in healthcare because every electronic medical record (EMR) system is different. Data formats vary, workflows are inconsistent, and resistance to change is high.

AI sidesteps these challenges by adapting to existing systems instead of forcing providers to overhaul their workflows. Charta’s platform can analyze documentation, identify missed codes, and flag compliance issues without requiring deep integration into EMR systems. Unlike traditional software, which demands extensive data mapping, AI-powered models can interpret and structure information from unstructured sources.

Moreover, Charta’s AI is designed to be adaptable at scale. Instead of retraining models from scratch for each healthcare provider, the platform uses instruction-based learning, enabling customization without massive datasets. This results in faster deployment, higher adaptability, and lower costs.

What’s Next for Charta Health?

With its new funding, Charta Health plans to expand its sales team to secure more contracts and further develop its product to support additional specialties. The company primarily serves high-volume, low-reimbursement sectors such as primary care, urgent care, and behavioral healthcare areas often neglected by other AI-driven solutions focused on inpatient care.

The startup has also brought on Dr. Caesar Djavaherian, cofounder and chief clinical innovation officer of Carbon Health, as its chief medical officer. Charta Health’s which was formerly also known as Limo Health spent years fine-tuning algorithms before entering the market. Liu and Morris have taken a different path which is identifying a pressing problem, embedding themselves in the field, and delivering a functional solution that immediately resonates with customers.