RISA Labs, a company pioneering an AI operating system for oncology, announced the closing of an $11.1 million Series A funding round. The financing was co-led by Cencora Ventures and Optum Ventures, with participation from Oncology Ventures, Z21 Ventures, and John Simon (co-founder of General Catalyst) via his Ventureforgood investment entity.

The funding will accelerate the deployment of RISA's system to cancer clinics, health systems, specialty pharmacies, and infusion networks across the United States, changing how complex oncology workflows are managed end-to-end.

In oncology, delays are costly for all stakeholders: patients, practices, payers, and pharma. Addressing this, RISA orchestrates patient access, benefits verification, and prior authorization, turning manual bottlenecks into predictable, high-throughput workflows across the cancer service line. In just nine months, partner institutions have already expanded from initial deployment to second and third workflows, reflecting rapid adoption and operational trust.

"In our vision for oncology, there are two sides to every patient's journey: getting them on the right therapy faster and deepening our understanding of the disease for the next patient through data," said Kshitij Jaggi, CEO of RISA Labs.

RISA connects directly to a cancer center's electronic medical record (EMR), payer and benefits systems, and other systems of record. A team of AI agents reads, reasons, and acts across these systems, gathering the right data, preparing and submitting authorizations, tracking status, and progressing cases across dozens of payer environments, EMRs and other tools. As forms, rules, or interfaces change, the agents adapt in real time, so workflows stay reliable without constant reprogramming. The AI OS is purpose-built for the realities of cancer care, handling complex payer rules, multi-drug regimens, and disease-specific requirements.

Teams manage and configure all of this through BOSS Console, RISA's command control panel for mission-critical institutions. With BOSS Console, each institution can tailor workflows, routing, document conventions, and practice-specific rules so the system behaves like an extension of its own operations. Every AI action is traceable and audit-ready, giving leaders clear visibility into what the system did and why, and how it stays aligned with compliance and clinical standards.

RISA is already live at some of the largest oncology practices in the U.S. At one partner site, approximately 80% of administrative staff time has been freed up, denials have been reduced by up to 40%, and first-pass approval rates have reached 97.8%. Patient authorizations are now filed within 24 hours of request and are on track to drop below 2 hours, down from an average 8-day backlog. More than 20 full-time equivalents have been repurposed to higher-value work, increasing both capacity and efficiency across the practice.

"BOSS Console is a low-entropy thinking information machine," said Kumar Shivang, CTO of RISA Labs. "Modern oncology has created thousands of potential care paths for every patient. It has become essential to have an intelligent operating system that can absorb this complexity, remove administrative burden, and act as a companion to the most informed clinical decisions."

By leveraging AI to confront the looming challenge of a growing patient population, increasingly complex treatment strategies, and a limited supply of oncologists, RISA aims to address the core mathematical problem in modern cancer care.

"As the treatments available for oncology patients increase in number and complexity, solutions to help streamline operational processes and enable efficient access to therapy become vital.  We look forward to supporting RISA on their next phase of growth," said Jason Dinger, Senior Vice President, Strategic Execution at Cencora.

In the coming year, RISA will go deeper in oncology, partnering with ecosystem leaders to expand AI-driven workflows across the full continuum of cancer care. Extending these capabilities to specialty pharmacy operations is the next step, built on the same foundation and configured through BOSS Console.