Waive Medical targets US expansion after graduating Google for Startups

Just a few weeks ago, Waive Medical became the first and only startup from Sudbury, Ont. to complete the Google for Startups accelerator program. Now, the company is preparing to raise a Series A round to help it launch in the United States.

Waive uses AI to help automate administrative work for clinics, with the aim of cutting down clinic time, money, and wait times. At the accelerator program’s demo day in Google’s Toronto office during Toronto Tech Week, Waive co-founder and CEO Shreyansh Anand claimed that his platform had helped one of its 320 clinics, Brampton, Ont.’s Queen Square Doctors, with over 7,000 faxes and 1,600 patient communications in one month, saving them more than 230 hours of labour.

“I’ve never seen a more connected and more aggressive group of people in terms of wanting to help and wanting to help build.”
Shreyansh Anand, Waive

Sudbury wasn’t originally on Waive’s radar until its local venture fund, NORCAT, made an investment in the company, Anand admitted in an interview with BetaKit following his presentation. However, he’s since fallen in love with the city, and credits his startup’s success so far to it.

“They took a chance on us when not many people did, and I’m very fortunate,” Anand said. “I hope I can give back more to the city, and I hope we can continue to grow and help them out.”

Sudbury is mostly known for its mining industry, however, according to Anand, the city is a boon for healthtech companies as it sports a high number of emergency beds per capita and a good local research hub in Health Sciences North. Anand also found a surprisingly enthusiastic community of startup leaders to join.

“I’ve never seen a more connected and more aggressive group of people in terms of wanting to help and wanting to help build,” Anand said. “I love the big city, don’t get me wrong … but I haven’t seen a place that’s going to move as fast as Sudbury; for its size, it’s really impressive.”

Anand said that Waive is on track to post $2.2 million in revenue, onboarding an average of one clinic per day alongside established partnerships with large clinic networks like Well Health and Loblaw.

One week before graduating Google for Startups, Waive completed a trial with its first client in the US. To continue that momentum, co-founder Tabassum Pasha is moving to San Francisco to lay the foundation for its US expansion.

“As long as we’re on the outside, we’re never going to solve the problem,” Anand said. “She’s going down south, figuring it out so we can start growing properly there and understand what the real problem is, while I stay here and just make sure everything is going great in Canada.”

Feature image courtesy Alex Riehl for BetaKit. Images from Waive Medical.