Operating room capacity is a financial backbone for hospitals, but inefficiencies in this department often ripple outward — hurting operating margins, burning out clinicians and reducing patient access.
On Thursday, a startup looking to fix operation room inefficiencies raked in a hefty Series B round. Healthcare data and AI platform Apella announced the close of a $80 million financing round, bringing the startup’s overall fundraising total to $115 million.
The San Francisco-based company, founded in 2020, offers a platform that gives perioperative teams the data and insights they need to optimize operating room operations, said CEO David Schummers.
By applying AI to perioperative data, Apella helps hospitals forecast demand, optimize block scheduling and reduce downtime between cases.
The goal is to surface insights that help hospitals better utilize existing capacity without adding staff or rooms — and to ultimately boost their case volume while also easing pressure on surgical teams.
In addition to benefiting hospitals and clinicians, the platform can also improve the patient experience by reducing surgical backlogs and wait times. Schummers said these efficiency gains are tied to a wider vision for access to care.
“At its core, Apella’s mission is to improve access to the best possible surgical care. Another way to say this is to democratize access to care. The Apella was the democratic assembly in Sparta, which inspired the company’s name,” he noted.
In Schummers’ view, Apella sets itself apart from other companies selling operating room management tech, such as Qventus and LeanTaaS, because it brings multiple layers of surgical operations into a single, unified platform.
“While other solutions focus on one part of the problem, Apella combines granular, real-time visibility with actionable recommendations, informed by predictive AI models, to offer a clear roadmap to improve processes and workflows,” he stated.
Some of the startup’s customers include Tampa General Hospital and the Medical University of South Carolina, as well as Houston Methodist, which also serves as an investor. On average, hospitals using Apella’s platform report a 5% increase in their surgical volume.
The company’s Series B funding round was led by HighlandX, with participation from nearly a dozen other funds and organizations, including Vensana Capital and Casdin Capital. Schummers said Apella plans to use its new influx of capital to continue to scale into more health systems across the country and develop additional products.
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