Sunlight AI, a company that runs the business side of independent medical practices, has launched with $17.4m in seed funding, according to a press release published on 19 October 2026. The company is based in New York and Miami.
The release said the round was led by Lan Xuezhao, founder of Basis Set Ventures. Sofeon Ventures, Social Leverage, Actions Capital, Overlook Ventures and Early Light Ventures also invested, along with about a dozen healthcare investors, family offices and technology founders, among them Chris Hubbell, Tilli Bannett, Dara Rahimzadeh and Frank Williams, the founder of Evolent Health. No valuation was disclosed.
Dealroom News, citing an interview the chief executive gave to Axios Pro, reported a different figure: a $10m seed round led by Basis Set Ventures. This article uses the $17.4m stated in the company's release.
“Physicians need more time to see patients and make clinical decisions, and less time dedicated to operational overhead.”Sina Chehrazi, Founder and CEO, Sunlight AI
What Sunlight AI does
Sunlight combines AI software, practice-management systems and human staff to take on the administrative work of independent physicians. Its website lists three service areas: revenue cycle management, people and operations, and tax and finance. The release describes the company as the layer that runs a practice from patient to payment. It wants to replace the five or six separate vendors a practice typically uses with a single operating partner, and says this lowers the administrative cost of each patient visit, improves collections and frees up time to see more patients.
The company said its first group of arbitration clients in 2026 recovered several times the amount insurers first offered to pay, at lower fees than rival vendors charged. It did not publish the underlying figures, which TechStartups noted are not enough for an independent assessment.
"Physicians need more time to see patients and make clinical decisions, and less time dedicated to operational overhead," said Sina Chehrazi, the founder and chief executive.
Buying service providers
Alongside the funding, Sunlight announced that it has acquired Bradford Medical Associates. Terms were not disclosed. The company described the deal as the first of several acquisitions of service providers that already work with independent practices, which it plans to bring onto its platform. Dealroom News, citing Axios Pro, reported that Sunlight plans at least two more acquisitions of small financial services vendors.
The company did not give a further breakdown of how it will use the money, and has not disclosed its headcount or when it was founded.
Who is behind it
Chehrazi began his career as an attorney at Kirkland & Ellis and studied at Georgetown's law school and its McDonough School of Business, according to the company's website. He also founded Nayya, a company that helps employees get value from their health benefits and that the release says serves more than 5 million employees. His father, Professor Barry Chehrazi, is an independent neurosurgeon who has run his own practice for decades and is a founding member of Sunlight's Independent Medicine Advisory Board.
Pressure on independent practices
Sunlight pitched the company against a long decline in independent medicine. Citing a report by the Physicians Advocacy Institute and Avalere, it said hospitals and corporate owners acquired more than 85,000 practices between 2018 and 2026, and that only 18% of physicians are still independent.
The release also said practice operating costs rose by about 11% in 2025, and that Medicare payments to physicians have fallen by more than 30% since 2001, citing MGMA and the American Medical Association. It pointed to a Yale and National Bureau of Economic Research study of 276 hospital acquisitions that found physician prices rose 15.1% within two years without measurable gains in quality.
Company website: sunlightai.com