OpenAI makes UK startup Anima its healthcare showcase as patients call the same bot a wall to care
OpenAI's October 23 customer story hands UK startup Anima a vendor endorsement just as it enters the US and Australia. The 75% wait cut is Anima's own measurement, and this month Wantage patients called the same bot a wall to care.
Vincent Jiang · 2 min read
Earlier this month, patients at Newbury Street Practice in Wantage, England, called the AI receptionist Andi a "wall" to care; the bot asked one 65-year-old whether she was phoning about her pregnancy 1. On October 23, OpenAI$500B — OpenAI, private, latest valuation $500B made Andi's maker, UK startup Anima, a healthcare customer story spanning more than 1,000 clinics and about 14 million patients 2.
The endorsement doubles as distribution
The figures are the pitch. Clinics on Andi, built on GPT-Live, cut phone waits from 40 to 50 minutes to about 10, at least 75%, and median case resolution runs about 3.5 hours across 800,000-plus cases a month 2. Shun Pang, a Cambridge-trained doctor who co-founded Anima 3, says OpenAI won a benchmark of open and closed models on "superior intelligence, intelligence per dollar" 2. The endorsement lands as Anima expands into the US and Australia 2.
Every number is Anima counting itself
Every metric is Anima's own measurement, relayed by its model vendor, and no independent test has confirmed the wait-time claims 4. Anima's own website markets harder than the case study, advertising a greater than 90% cut in phone waits 5. OpenAI's healthcare showcase is a customer grading its own homework.
Receipts and counter-receipts
Document throughput roughly tripled: practices that filed about 15 clinical documents an hour now handle 30 to 45, top performers 45 to 60, and some clinics cleared backlogs above 100,000 documents within days 2.
Document throughput tripled at clinics on Anima, by Anima's own count
- Estimate
Data
| Value | Range | |
|---|---|---|
| Before Anima | 15 docs/hr | — |
| Typical with Anima (estimate) | 37.5 docs/hr | 30–45 docs/hr |
| Top performers (estimate) | 52.5 docs/hr | 45–60 docs/hr |
The Wantage surgery logged more than 11,000 requests, about 180 a working day, with over 60% of booked appointments same-day; feedback ran 79% positive the first month, 84% the second, and the practice says the service passed NHS assurance checks 1. Anima's surveys put would-reuse at 86%, with people in their 80s and 90s among the happiest users 2. One named patient still queued 20 minutes after Andi decided it could not help her 1.
Where the money sits
Anima's last disclosed round is a $12 million Series A of March 2024, led by Molten Ventures with Hummingbird Ventures, Amino Collective and Y Combinator, raised when it served 150 NHS clinics 3. accuRx had raised £36.6 million, Memora Health $80.5 million, NexHealth $177.2 million 3. The case study closes none of that funding gap, but it puts OpenAI's logo on the benchmark every rival now sells against.
Rivals had raised several times Anima's $12 million Series A
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Anima | $12M |
| Memora Health | $80.5M |
| NexHealth | $177.2M |
The two readings that decide it
No independent verification exists yet 4. Until one lands, watch Wantage's monthly feedback, which tests whether the wall gets taller, and Anima's next disclosed round, which prices what the endorsement is worth.
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