Grove Raises $4.9M to Modernize Clinical Trials Using Agentic AI

Healthcare AI startup Grove has raised $4.9 million in seed funding to revolutionize the clinical trial process using agentic artificial intelligence—a new class of AI designed to act with greater autonomy, adaptability, and context-awareness. The round was led by healthcare-focused venture firms, with participation from strategic angels and early backers in the digital health and AI communities.

Grove’s platform aims to modernize the way clinical trials are designed, managed, and executed by harnessing the power of agentic AI to streamline operations, enhance protocol compliance, and accelerate patient recruitment—one of the most time-consuming and costly aspects of clinical research.

“Our mission is to take the complexity out of clinical trials,” said Dr. Natalie Rao, co-founder and CEO of Grove. “With agentic AI, we’re building an intelligent system that can adapt in real time, reason through changing conditions, and support human teams in making faster, more accurate decisions—ultimately helping life-saving therapies reach patients sooner.”

The funding will be used to grow Grove’s engineering and clinical operations teams, expand pilot programs with pharmaceutical and biotech partners, and further develop the company’s AI platform to support more use cases across the clinical trial lifecycle.

Clinical trials are notorious for being lengthy, expensive, and plagued by inefficiencies. According to industry estimates, the average cost of bringing a new drug to market exceeds $2.5 billion, with much of that tied to extended timelines and high failure rates during clinical testing. Grove believes its platform can dramatically cut down on these delays by intelligently automating key processes and improving trial design through continuous data feedback.

Agentic AI—a newer paradigm in artificial intelligence—is particularly suited to the demands of clinical research. Unlike traditional rule-based automation or even some current machine learning models, agentic AI systems can act semi-independently, learning from ongoing data inputs and adjusting their behavior accordingly. Grove’s AI agents, for example, can monitor trial sites, detect potential deviations from protocol, recommend adjustments in real time, and even assist in recruiting eligible patients by scanning electronic health records and suggesting outreach strategies.

“Our AI isn’t just reactive—it’s proactive,” said Dr. Jerome Ellis, Grove’s Chief Technology Officer. “It’s like having a highly skilled assistant embedded in every part of the trial process, watching for issues, spotting opportunities, and helping teams focus on what really matters: advancing science.”

The funding round was led by HealthBridge Ventures, with participation from Luminary Capital, and notable angel investors with deep experience in biotech, regulatory affairs, and AI. The investors emphasized Grove’s unique positioning at the intersection of healthcare innovation and advanced machine intelligence.

“We’re seeing a growing need for tools that don’t just digitize existing workflows but rethink them entirely,” said Amira Chen, partner at HealthBridge Ventures. “Grove’s use of agentic AI stands to redefine the operating model of clinical trials in a way that’s both scalable and human-centered.”

In addition to its proprietary AI technology, Grove is building out integrations with electronic medical records, trial management systems, and regulatory platforms to ensure that its tools are interoperable and easy to deploy across diverse clinical settings. The company is already in discussions with multiple pharmaceutical sponsors and CROs (contract research organizations) to pilot the platform in early-phase oncology and rare disease trials.

As the healthcare sector continues its push toward digital transformation, Grove’s timing may prove advantageous. With regulatory bodies encouraging the use of real-world data and AI in trials, and with global interest in reducing the cost and duration of drug development, Grove’s platform could become a cornerstone of the next generation of clinical research.

“Our goal is to make trials faster, smarter, and more humane,” said Dr. Rao. “This funding allows us to take a big step forward in realizing that vision.”