Pioneer Future Of Health & YC W26: The AI Health Tech Moment

Inside Assort Health's Path to a $1.2B Series C

Three years ago, Assort Health was two founders with no product. Today it's valued at $1.2 billion. Connor Hailey (W21) knows what it's like to build a healthcare startup from zero, having founded Axle Health through YC. That perspective is exactly what helped Pioneer spot Assort Health early. In this episode, Connor, Senior Venture Partner at Pioneer Fund, and Dave Messina (GP, Pioneer Future of Health⁠ [https://health.pioneerfund.vc/?utm_source=luma]) retrace the diligence that led to investment, the bet on execution over technology, and what Assort's path to a $1.2B Series C says about winning in healthcare AI.

Jon Wang (Assort Health) on Building Voice AI for Healthcare at Scale

Millions of patients still wait on hold just to reach their doctor's office. Jon Wang, Founder & Co-CEO of Assort Health, decided that was unacceptable — and built the AI to fix it. In conversation with Dave Messina (GP, Pioneer Future of Health), Jon shares how Assort reached 130M+ patient interactions, why specialty-specific AI matters, and where voice AI in healthcare goes from here. Inflection is a new Pioneer Future of Health [https://health.pioneerfund.vc/?utm_source=luma] series where we bring together people at the edge of Health and AI — founders, operators, and bio-enthusiasts who are building the next decade of healthcare. Raw conversations, real insights, no hype.

Pioneer Future Of Health & YC W26: The AI Health Tech Moment

In this episode, Jason Gray (Founder and General Partner, Pioneer Fund) and Dave Messina (General Partner, Pioneer Future of Health Fund) dive deep on the W26 Y Combinator batch and discuss key insights related to the Future of Health Fund coming out of one of the strongest biotech and health tech cohorts in recent history. The conversation covers how AI is reshaping drug discovery, replacing animal models with human biology representations, and acting as a co-pilot for scientists. From AI-powered primary care and revenue cycle automation to chronic disease management and elder care, they break down where they're seeing the most exciting founder activity — and what separates the companies worth backing from the AI wrappers that won't last. Plus: a look at one of Pioneer's standout portfolio exits — a psychedelics platform that sold its lead asset for over $1 billion after pioneering treatment-resistant depression therapy.