Heidi raises USD $16.6m to ease clinician workloads

Heidi, a healthcare artificial intelligence company based in Melbourne, has raised USD $16.6 million in a recent funding round, led by Headline with participation from various investors including Local Globe and Blackbird.

The funding is intended to enhance Heidi's mission to alleviate the burden on clinicians by reducing administrative tasks, thereby allowing them to spend more time with patients. Currently, the World Health Organisation anticipates a global shortfall of 10 million health workers by 2030 amidst growing demands on health systems. Heidi aims to address this challenge by automating documentation tasks, which traditionally consume over two hours of a doctor's daily schedule.

Heidi's AI scribe, operational in various clinical environments, not limited to primary care settings, is designed to reduce clinicians' workloads by handling note-taking and document generation. The company plans to utilise the recent funding to expand capabilities beyond scribing, such as creating pre-chart summaries, accessing clinical guidelines, and engaging with patients outside clinics.

Since its launch in February 2024, Heidi's AI scribe has facilitated over 20 million patient interactions globally. By March 2025, it was active in over 1 million consultations weekly. The scribe operates without recording sessions and complies with relevant privacy and data security regulations, making it a secure option for use in various practice settings.

Dr. Thomas Kelly, CEO and Co-founder of Heidi, stated, "Despite clinicians' passion for patient care and significant investment in their medical education, they are overwhelmed by an unsustainable administrative workload that drags them away from their clinical responsibilities. This destroys their wellbeing and drains away job satisfaction, resulting in an exodus of talented clinicians from the workforce - further reducing the capacity of our already frail healthcare systems. That's why I founded Heidi - to free doctors from non-clinical work so they can focus on their patients and enjoy fulfilling careers in medicine."

Commenting on the funding, Taylor Brandt, Partner at Headline, remarked, "Heidi's approach to the medical scribe market is truly differentiated. What sets Heidi apart are their bold choices: prioritising customisation over complex integrations, their global-first strategy, and building a product-led motion out of Australia that rivals tech giants like Canva and Atlassian. In just one year, they're already facilitating one million consultations weekly across five countries which far outstrips other AI scribe offerings - an extraordinary testament to how perfectly they've addressed clinicians' needs."

According to Ferdi Sigona, Partner at LocalGlobe, "Thanks to its widespread clinical usage, constant feedback, and rapid iteration, Heidi has emerged as the best product in its category. As medical scribes fast become one of the most impactful applications of AI, we believe Heidi is leading the way toward a future where agentic AI will transform healthcare further still. We couldn't be more excited to back a team making such a meaningful difference to clinicians' lives and patient care."

Heidi has secured significant adoption in countries such as the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, with growing presence in the EU. Notable deployments include Modality Partnership in the UK, Beth Israel in Massachusetts, ForHealth in Australia, and Tamaki Health in New Zealand, showcasing the company's wide reach across various healthcare systems.