Laudio raises $13 million to help health systems retain talent

The company uses AI to help frontline workers find ways to better connect with their team members

The pandemic worsened burnout among physicians, and now all health system CEOs say that labor productivity and burnout is their top issue. Unfortunately, they're stuck in a never-ending cycle: employee turnover creates staffing crisis, which in turn costs health systems more money as they look to inefficient labor pools. This drains the best workers and puts them under immense pressure.

One way to solve this problem is to give frontline managers a better way to connect with their teams, which is what healthcare management solution Laudio, which announced a $13 million Series B round of funding on Thursday, provides. 

Laudio automates repetitive work and provides daily recommendations and best practices that help managers gain better visibility into their teams, giving them way to create more meaningful connections. It tracks information and reports it in on a dashboard that helps nurse managers keep up with birthdays and service anniversaries, education and training accomplishments, and other events. 

"Frontline managers are an unlock in breaking this vicious cycle, yet they are oftentimes overlooked and don’t receive the resources and solutions, like artificial intelligence, that clinicians have," Russ Richmond, MD, CEO and co-founder of Laudio, told VatorNews.

"Laudio’s AI-powered solution acts as a co-pilot to thousands of frontline leaders, amplifying their work and delivering measurable, large-scale improvements. This directly addresses health systems’ highest pain points of retention, reducing burnout, and employee engagement."

For example, one of Laudio's customers is North Mississippi Health Services, which was experiencing 35% RN turnover within the first year of employment, and 55% within the first three years. By implementing Laudio it gave nurse managers reminders and AI-generated information that allowed them better recognize their workers and engage with them regularly, which made the clinical staff feel acknowledged and appreciated for their work.

"With Laudio, nurse managers easily track how many contacts they've had with each employee at a glance; receive reminders about individual' milestones and behaviors; and receive automated suggestions for recognizing these achievements and actions," Richmond explained. 

Laudio is currently used by more than 20 health systems and thousands of frontline leaders; on average, its customers see 4:1 ROI at the end of the first year, with clients breaking even on the product in three months. 

The new funding, which brings the company's total raised to $25 million, was led by Define Ventures, with participation from existing investors .406 Ventures, InHealth Ventures, MemorialCare Innovation Fund, and TeleTracking Technologies. Along with the funding, A.G Breitenstein, Venture Partner at Define Ventures, as well as founder of FOLX Health and former Chief Product Officer of Optum Analytics, is joining Laudio’s Board of Directors.

"A.G. brought deep expertise through her own experience as a CEO and senior operator in our space. She’s so grounded in our world and quickly generated helpful insights the moment we met her. This level of collaboration and executional understanding of what it means to operate within health systems made A.G. the ideal partner for us," said Richmond.

Laudio, which experienced 100% year-over-year growth in 2022, will use the new funding to invest in its platform, as well as expanding its sales team and increasing overall investment in marketing, while also making larger investments in its AI and analytics platform.

"We plan on establishing ourselves as the future of work within the healthcare space this year. We believe that the future of work is going to be about automation and collaboration, and our software achieves that. We’re able to automate administrative work and allow managers and leaders to focus on what’s truly important," said Richmond.

"Foundationally, we want healthcare professionals to get back to the reason they chose to work in healthcare. We want to enable them to do the best work of their lives, and in turn, we want to help healthcare systems achieve long-term stabilization."