Patient referrals between primary care providers and specialists remain a persistent bottleneck in U.S. healthcare, plagued by manual processes, delays, and a lack of transparency. Tennr, a health technology startup founded in New York City in 2021 by Stanford University alumni Trey Holterman, Diego Baugh, and Tyler Johnson, is addressing this challenge by deploying advanced artificial intelligence models to automate front office workflows and documentation intake.
At the heart of Tennr’s offering is RaeLM, a proprietary vision-language model purpose-built to interpret unstructured medical documents against complex payer criteria. RaeLM is trained on 100 million anonymized healthcare documents and billions of data fields, allowing it to extract, route, and process referral information with unprecedented accuracy. By automating these workflows, Tennr reduces error rates and processing delays, enabling healthcare providers to convert more patient referrals and reduce costly payer denials. Tennr claims to currently process 10 million documents monthly for hundreds of healthcare organizations.
The company continues to expand its reach with the latest series C funding round led by IVP, with participation from new and existing investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, GV, ICONIQ, Foundation Capital, and Frank Slootman, former CEO and chairman of Snowflake. While specific funding and valuation figures were not disclosed, Tennr states it has more than tripled its revenue since its series B round just two quarters prior. Remarkably, the company reports that it has yet to spend its series B funds, indicating prudent capital management and rapid revenue growth.
Tennr’s focus extends beyond document digitization. The company is building tools to improve the entire pre-visit experience, launching the Tennr Network to facilitate real-time referral status tracking among referring providers, receivers, and patients. By integrating artificial intelligence with existing workflows rather than replacing established systems, Tennr seeks to reduce friction and improve patient follow-through. Early results indicate increased patient adherence and improved satisfaction. Additional product lines now encompass eligibility checks, qualifications billing, communications coordination, and forthcoming patient experience solutions.
Industry leaders, including Ty Barnett, CIO of Norco Inc., have endorsed Tennr’s impact, citing significant reductions in manual effort and errors. The problem Tennr is tackling is substantial: one-third of Americans are referred for specialty care each year, and roughly half of those referrals are never completed, according to national studies. With a large share of providers still reliant on fax machines, Tennr’s artificial intelligence-powered approach meets healthcare where it is—streamlining operations without requiring seismic technology adoption shifts.
