After a Surprise Brain Cancer Diagnosis, a Tech Veteran Raised $4M to Build the AI Health Tool He Wished He'd Had
Triangle Health helps patients navigate complex diagnoses with AI-powered research, complete medical records, and a doctor in the loop
PASADENA, Calif., March 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Triangle Health cofounder Arun Verma was on a business trip when his curiosity about health tech startups brought him to Prenuvo, an early-detection service that offers full-body MRI scans. His scan revealed an upsetting surprise: a Grade 2 Glioma. Brain cancer. "After my diagnosis, I spent a year becoming an expert in my own disease. I used ChatGPT, which was new at the time, to research my condition and scour the medical literature for the best treatment options. I eventually landed on two experimental therapies and brought them to my oncologist. He agreed, we started treatment, and I'm healthy today," said Verma. "That research may have saved my life, but most people don't have the time, background, or resources to do what I did."
So Verma built Triangle, an AI health navigation platform that gives patients their full medical history and a research team in their pocket. Its AI surfaces emerging treatments like newly approved drugs, off-label therapies, and clinical trials that patients and their doctors may not otherwise discover. Central to Triangle's approach is its doctor-in-the-loop model: AI handles the research, but a licensed physician reviews findings and is available for telehealth consultations, ensuring patients never have to act on AI alone. Collaboration features enable family members to help loved ones navigate their care from a distance. An MCP integration connects Triangle with Claude by Anthropic, and a ChatGPT Health integration is planned. Triangle is private, secure, and HIPAA-compliant.
To build Triangle, Verma recruited fellow tech veterans: Jonathan Grubb as CEO (Bird, OpenTable) and Justin Balthrop as CTO (co-founder of Bird, $2.5B IPO on NYSE). Verma, previously a senior leader at Shopify and Atoms, serves as COO. During his treatment, Verma sought out a physician who shared his enthusiasm for next-generation therapies. He found Dr. Santosh Kesari, founder of Asthra Health and one of the country's top-ranked neuro-oncologists, who joined Triangle as founding medical advisor.
The company today announced $4 million in pre-seed financing from Kevin Mahaffey at Signal Noise Ratio, Hannah Grey, Antler Criticality Fund with the State of New Mexico, John Hering of Vy Capital and x.ai, Marty Tenenbaum, and Kestrin Pantera.
"Patients today are already using tools like ChatGPT to research their health, but for complex and overlapping conditions, you need a purpose-built AI with a human expert in the loop," said Grubb. "We created a platform for that job: your full medical history in context, the entire body of medical literature at hand, and a doctor who partners with you to act on what you find."
"We're entering an era of agentic AI, where systems can act on your behalf. But their power depends on the context they have," said Balthrop. "We built Triangle so that patients own their health data and can connect it to the best AI systems as they emerge. That's what turns a chatbot into a true health agent."
Most health apps force patients to gather records themselves -- uploading documents or logging into each hospital's portal one at a time. Triangle partners with Particle Health to retrieve a patient's complete medical history with a single click, giving Triangle's doctors and AI a comprehensive picture of each patient's health from day one. "The future of healthcare depends on democratizing access to health data. That's why we're so excited to collaborate with Triangle to help patients and doctors partner around a clear picture of the patient's health history," said Jason Prestinario, CEO of Particle Health. "When patients and care teams are empowered with complete, AI-ready health data, better health outcomes follow."
"Triangle bridges the gap between what's published in the medical literature and what patients actually know is available to them," said Dr. Kesari. "It's the kind of tool I want my patients to have."
"Going through cancer changed how I think about time," said Verma. "We all have a limited window to leave a positive mark. AI is the breakthrough technology of our era, and we can use it to give millions of people longer, healthier lives. That's what I want to do with the extra time modern medicine has given me."
Triangle is available now at www.trianglehealth.com
SOURCE Triangle Health
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