Last Updated: 19 December 2025
Drive Health has closed a $15 million strategic investment led by Vitalis Ventures to expand Avery, its Google-powered AI platform for clinical workflow automation. The funding includes an additional tranche set to close in Q1 2026, with Inside Capital Partners joining as a co-investor. This brings Drive Health's total capital raised to over $26 million as the company prepares for a Series A round in 2026.
Vitalis Ventures will join Drive Health's board upon completion of the second tranche, bringing operational expertise and healthcare system relationships to support nationwide deployment. The investment positions Drive Health to deepen its partnership with Google and expand Avery's capabilities across health systems, managed care organizations, and population health programs.
Avery operates as a clinical workflow engine designed to handle high-volume communication and coordination tasks that typically consume nursing time. The platform automates functions like discharge planning, secure message triage, and patient follow-up while operating under hospital-defined rules and safety protocols.
"This partnership marks a major inflection point for Drive Health," said Kevin Longoria, CEO of Drive Health. "Vitalis brings real operational depth, health-system experience, and the long-term vision needed to scale Avery responsibly. With their support, and through our continued work with Google, we are accelerating our ability to deliver safe, accessible, and compassionate AI support to healthcare facilities and patients nationwide."
The platform drafts clinician-approved patient education materials, collects symptom data, and routes issues for clinical review based on predetermined escalation criteria. It supports care episodes including pregnancy monitoring, chronic disease management, and post-discharge recovery. Avery does not diagnose, treat, or prescribe independently. Every workflow includes human oversight, audit logging, and safety governance.
Drive Health will allocate approximately 47% of the funding to engineering and R&D, focusing on advancing the core platform's capabilities and technical infrastructure. Another 30% supports commercial expansion and customer delivery as the company scales deployments beyond pilot programs. The remaining 23% strengthens operational systems, compliance frameworks, and financial infrastructure needed to support growth.
The company currently has contracts covering roughly 400,000 individuals, with deployments expanding as customers transition from initial pilots to broader program rollouts. Drive Health plans to expand Avery into additional care pathways while deepening integrations with electronic health record systems and exploring regulatory frameworks for AI-assisted care coordination.
The funding also supports Drive Health's participation in Illinois' Healthy Baby initiative, a state-backed maternal health program. Avery will deliver appointment reminders, educational content, and symptom check-ins to more than 56,000 families participating in the program, which combines Google Pixel devices, Fitbit technology, and AT&T connectivity with clinical oversight.
Kevin Longoria founded Drive Health after spending years as a data scientist leader with the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, where he focused on overcoming access barriers and labor shortages in medically underserved communities. While telehealth and remote monitoring showed promise, Longoria recognized these solutions provided only incremental improvements to a structural problem.
Healthcare's labor shortage drives many systemic issues, including care access gaps and health inequity. Longoria and his team developed Avery as a scalable response to the supply-demand imbalance affecting clinical workforces nationwide. The platform functions as infrastructure that extends clinical capacity without replacing human judgment or expertise.
Drive Health launched its Google partnership in 2024 to enhance Avery's security, scalability, and healthcare system integration. The platform runs on Google Cloud's healthcare-grade infrastructure and incorporates Google's AI capabilities for natural language processing and multilingual communication. Avery currently operates in more than 15 languages.
Clinical development follows guidance from Drive Health's Clinical Advisory Council, which includes front-line nurses and physicians. A separate Clinical Safety Committee provides interprofessional oversight on AI governance and patient safety protocols. The company emphasizes that Avery functions as a support tool within existing clinical workflows rather than an autonomous decision-making system.
"Drive Health developed the lowest latency, most comprehensive and clinically aligned workflow automation platform in the market, with the potential to meaningfully reshape how care teams manage communication and follow-up," said Elliot LaBreche, Founder and CEO of Vitalis. "We believe Avery's approach to continuity-of-care represents the future of patient support, and we are proud to partner with the Drive Health team as they scale the platform nationwide."
Vitalis Ventures operates a portfolio of outpatient medical facilities, surgery centers, and behavioral health clinics, giving the firm direct insight into patient flow challenges and workforce constraints. This operational background will inform Drive Health's go-to-market strategy as it targets deployment across both provider and payer organizations.
The partnership addresses healthcare's mounting administrative burden on clinical staff. Routine patient communication and follow-up tasks consume significant nursing hours while labor shortages persist across U.S. health systems. Drive Health positions Avery as infrastructure that preserves clinical expertise for complex care while automating standardized interactions.
Inside Capital Partners, which co-invested in the round, focuses on AI and health technology solutions with commercialization potential across domestic and international markets. The firm leverages relationships with health systems and government entities to support portfolio company growth.
