Frontera Health Raises $32M to Fix Autism Care at Scale Starting With Rural America

Amol Deshpande’s journey into autism care wasn’t the logical next step for a man who built his career in agriculture technology. He co-founded Farmers Business Network, an agtech unicorn, after investing in companies like Beyond Meat as a partner at Kleiner Perkins. But the decision to start Frontera Health wasn’t about business—it was personal.

More than a decade ago, his son was diagnosed with autism at the age of two. Back then, his child couldn’t speak or even respond to his own name. Fast forward to today, and his son is thriving. That transformation didn’t happen overnight—it required relentless effort, access to care, and the right specialists. But Deshpande knew his family had something that many others didn’t: resources. For countless families, especially those in rural communities, autism care remains frustratingly out of reach.

That’s the problem Frontera Health was built to solve. Today, the company launched with an ambitious goal: to improve access to autism diagnosis and care using artificial intelligence. And it’s starting with a $32 million Seed round co-led by Lux Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, alongside Bison Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Inspired Capital.

Autism Care Is Broken Especially Outside of Cities

The statistics are hard to ignore. In 2023, the CDC reported that 1 in 36 children in the U.S. was diagnosed with autism. Despite rising awareness, access to care hasn’t kept up. There are three times as many children who need intervention as those who actually receive it. In rural areas, that gap widens to five times.

Families outside of major cities face a brutal reality. There aren’t enough specialists, so waitlists stretch for months—sometimes years. Traveling to the nearest clinic can mean driving hours each way. Even when services are available, language barriers and financial constraints make them inaccessible for many.

Clinicians, meanwhile, are drowning in administrative work. Board-Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and diagnosticians spend more time on paperwork than on actual therapy. The process is slow, inefficient, and outdated. And asking clinicians to simply work more hours isn’t a solution.

Deshpande saw all of this firsthand. And he knew AI could help.

AI That Works for Clinicians, Not Against Them

Frontera Health isn’t trying to replace clinicians—it’s giving them tools to do their jobs better. At the heart of its approach is Digital Phenotyping, a method that extracts clinical data at 30 frames per second from video. Instead of relying solely on subjective assessments and fragmented notes, Frontera’s AI-powered system provides real-time cognitive reasoning and objective data points.

Therapeutic sessions are analyzed at a level of detail never before possible. The AI tracks interactions and behaviors, generating unbiased assessments that help clinicians make data-driven decisions. The goal is simple: faster, more precise diagnoses and treatment plans that actually improve outcomes.

Frontera is also building AI tools specifically designed to ease the burden on BCBAs and diagnosticians. Its Diagnosis Builder helps clinicians deliver diagnostic reports in half the time. Meanwhile, the Assessment Builder allows BCBAs to complete comprehensive, personalized assessments in just 2-3 hours—something that used to take days.

The impact is significant. Less time spent on paperwork means clinicians can see more children. Faster diagnoses mean families can start treatment earlier. And AI-driven insights ensure that therapy is tailored to each child’s specific needs.

For Deshpande, Frontera is more than just another startup. It’s an extension of everything he’s learned as a parent, an entrepreneur, and an investor. His background in agriculture gave him a deep understanding of rural economies and the systemic challenges they face. Autism care, he realized, was no different.

Lux Capital’s Bilal Zuberi, one of Frontera’s lead investors, saw the same potential. “AI has the power to fundamentally change how we diagnose and deliver care, but it needs to work hand-in-hand with clinicians,” he said. “Frontera’s technology is built to do precisely that.”

Lightspeed’s Galym Imanbayev, MD, echoed that sentiment. “In healthcare, the most impactful companies drive both patient outcomes and operational efficiency. Frontera is doing exactly that—empowering clinicians with multimodal AI tools to thoughtfully measure and manage neurodevelopmental conditions at a fidelity never before possible.”

The company’s next step is to open its first Innovation Center, a premier ABA clinic offering diagnostic and therapeutic services. While Frontera’s software is designed to be used across multiple settings, the clinic will serve as a model for what AI-enhanced autism care can look like in practice.

This isn’t just about autism. Digital Phenotyping has the potential to reshape how a wide range of neurodevelopmental conditions are diagnosed and treated. The same AI-driven approach that helps BCBAs work more efficiently could be applied to speech therapy, ADHD assessments, and beyond.

For now, though, Frontera is focused on fixing a system that has failed too many families for too long.

Deshpande has spent 18 months building this from the ground up, taking the time to ensure that Frontera’s AI is more than just a flashy tool—it’s something that genuinely improves care. And now, with $32 million in funding, he’s ready to take it to the next level.

“We cannot ask clinicians simply to work more hours,” he said. “We need innovation.”