Citizen Health has garnered $30 million in Series A funding, which will help the company market its AI Advocate tool, which is designed to assist patients in managing their overall healthcare.
8VC led the round in which Transformation Capital and Headline also participated.
The new raise brings the company's total funding to $44 million since its launch in 2023.
WHAT IT DOES
Citizen Health aims to help patients with rare diseases overcome obstacles by creating a knowledge base that acquires clinical data, genetic information, imaging and patient-reported outcomes.
The new platform integrates AI, community and longitudinal health data to help patients understand medical records, track symptoms, learn from peers and manage appointments.
The company plans to launch the first version of its AI Advocate tool in the third quarter of this year.
In addition, Citizen Health intends to recruit engineers, product builders and designers and expand partnerships with pharma, policymakers and patient organizations.
"Today's patients aren't waiting, they are searching, deciding and expecting more," Farid Vij, CEO and cofounder of Citizen Health, said in a statement.
"They deserve the same clarity, personalization and intelligence in healthcare that they get in every other part of their lives. At Citizen, we are building a personalized AI Advocate for every patient that not only helps people make sense of their health journey, but actually guides them to what they should do next and connects them to it. This is about turning passive systems into proactive, human-centered experiences."
MARKET SNAPSHOT
In 2024, Citizen Health raised $14.5 million in seed funding. Transformation Capital led the round, with participation from Wavemaker 360 and prominent angel investors.
A strategic program investment and partnership with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative bolstered the funding.
Other organizations involved in this space include TeleRare Health, which in April began offering virtual genomic consults across Minnesota for adult and pediatric patients facing difficulties navigating the diagnosis of their rare or genetics-based condition.
Through the virtual genomic consults service, patients gain value by obtaining a rapid and accurate diagnosis and genomic-informed care.
In March, TeleRare Health launched a partnership with Maryland-based Frederick Health to expand patient access to genetic testing, diagnosis and knowledgeable care for rare and genetics-based diseases.
Earlier this month, the National Organization for Rare Diseases (NORD) announced five new requests for proposals totaling $245,000 in seed grant funding.
The grants are part of NORD's Rare Disease Research Grant Program, which provides essential early-stage funding to jumpstart promising investigations and accelerate the development of potential treatments for rare diseases for which therapeutic options are limited or nonexistent.
The European Medicines Agency has granted orphan designation to Sanofi's rilzabrutinib, a reversible covalent Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, for IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD).
According to Sanofi, rilzabrutinib for the treatment of IgG4-related disease was evaluated in a phase 2 study (clinical study identifier: NCT04520451). The results were presented at the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) 2025 Congress.
In July, Sanofi completed the $9.5 billion acquisition of the U.S.-based Blueprint Medicines, a company specializing in systemic mastocytosis, a rare immunological disease and other KIT-driven diseases.
The acquisition included a rare immunology disease medicine, Ayvakit/Ayvakyt (avapritinib), approved in the U.S. and the EU and a promising advanced and early-stage immunology pipeline.
Sales in Q2 for Novartis' Zolgensma, the company's rare disease gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy, were $297 million, down 17% compared to the same quarter last year.
